1. Become or Remain a Sustaining Member
The CVA is an important ministry. We seek to heal our largely broken relationship with God’s earth. Currently, most people think that God’s animals and God-given natural resources exist only to satisfy human desires, including those that are trivial. This attitude is extremely harmful for the nonhuman world, and it is ultimately destructive for humans. Our ministry involves leafleting, tabling, and providing Christian Education materials to help create a more kind, just, and flourishing world. Please go to www.christianveg.org/materials.htm.
There, you can buy CVA merchandise and, at the bottom of the page, you can donate to the CVA.
2. Existential Anxiety
Last week, I started to discuss how embracing animal rights can be a
gift. I would like to elaborate further from a perspective that relates to
existential anxiety.
We find ourselves inhabiting a particular body at a particular place in a
particular point of time. Throughout our lives, we seek to understand the
origin of the persistent sense of self that is connected to our bodies. A
Buddhist approach is to assert that the sense of self is not real; rather,
it is an illusion. However, this claim conflicts sharply with everyday
experience. When I stub my toe, it hurts. If anyone stubs their toe, I might
feel bad for them, but I don’t feel their pain. We have both a strong
experience of the self being real, but we also have uncertainty about what
the persistent self really is. We want the self to flourish and exist
through time, hoping that it continues to exist in some form after our
bodies cease to function. Yet, the sense of self seems tied to the brain and
is not clearly “real” outside the material world. Uncertainty about what our
sense of self really is leads to existential anxiety.
Feeling connected to the universe soothes existential anxiety, because our
sense of self and our understanding of the meaning of our lives are both
grounded in relationships. It is difficult feeling connected to inanimate
bodies, and consequently we generally find ourselves drawn to other living,
feeling beings with whom we can have a relationship. If we lacked
relationships with others, many of us would feel unbearably alone and
anxious. When we gain a sense of connection to others, our lives feel more
real and meaningful. The sages of all the ages taught that the path to
individual and communal salvation comes via compassion, kindness, and
respect for others. Though they often suffered and many were murdered, the
stories about them relate that they embraced nonviolence and that they were
at peace with themselves and the world. The Bible relates that Jesus, even
as he suffered grievously on the cross, ultimately seemed to be at peace.
His last words were, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit” (Luke
23:46).
To the degree that we feel at peace with the world, we can gain a sense of
inner peace. To the degree that we embrace violence to satisfy short-term
pleasures and desires, we will tend to feel more disconnected and therefore
more anxious. I suggest that mindfulness about the experiences of nonhumans
and fellow humans naturally encourages us to make choices that enhance their
well-being. Knowing that, to the best of our abilities, we are friends of
the nonhumans and humans among us allows us to feel more connected to them
and, by extension, to the wider universe. This might not fully resolve all
existential anxiety, but it should provide considerable comfort.
Stephen R. Kaufman, MD