[QUOTE=acsenray]
But the simple fact of human society is that it is socially unacceptable to treat the strictures of sincere religious belief as if they are nothing but irrational (even if they are, and I do agree that they are).
But it’s not just a religious issue. Years of conditioning tells us what is “edible” and what is “inedible.” Telling a vegetarian who has never eaten meat to just pick out the meat, is like giving the average American an egg salad sandwich made with grasshoppers and grubs to just pick out the bugs and the worms and enjoy the rest of the sandwich. Or throwing lunch into the garbage bin and saying – they’re all wrapped, just dig them out and eat them.
The food has had intimate contact with something that the eater considers to be incompatible with eating. Regardless of the irrationality of religion, except in survival circumstances, it’s just plain not nice to put someone through that intentionally.
[/QUOTE]
That’s all well and good but if I may speak frankly, the vast majority of North American vegetarianism is not a result of cultural or religious conditioning but is simply an affectation, a fashion statement, an attention seeking device. I say that as someone who’s been there and done that. I grew out of it when I realized what a santimonious pain in the ass I was to everybody else. I think it’s immature to expect that everyone else should be concerned about and pander to a dietary affectation.