A major philosophical question is: Is there a God and, in the case of a personal God, are they good or omnipotent? Considering the state of the world, it’s not both.

If God is good, how can they allow people to eat non-human animals and their excrements, when this is not even necessary for survival? Is it perhaps not in their power to change this?
If God is omnipotent, how can they allow people to eat non-human animals and their excrements, when this is not even necessary for survival? Do they perhaps not feel like doing anything about it? Do they find all this misery funny?

In the absence of clear proofs of God, people are left to their own judgment. Humanists have formulated values that could be universally valid, just like the Ten Commandments, which are said to have been dictated by God. One of the core principles of humanism is that helping is better than harming. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with this golden rule, just look at the Trumps of this world.
Personally, I feel at home with (eco-)humanism, which encourages you to adopt a responsible attitude to life. I try to help other animals, human and non-human, and I try to show others how beautiful that is. How awesome it is to feed yourself with plant-based foods that cause less damage to all living things. (Nine years vegan; not a second of regret.) How nice it is to say something kind to people you meet. And what a feeling it gives to donate time or money to an organisation that is committed to a better world.

Yesterday I read a news report about two male vultures that had hatched a vulture egg together and were now caring for a vulture baby. Apart from the strange choice of words here and there, I loved that article. And how special that the day before Easter, the festival in which chickens are crucified for our sins, this was in the newspaper.
Today before breakfast I read all kinds of articles in the newspaper about how chicken eggs are HEALTHY, God forbid, and how many you can eat and whether it matters whether they have Better Life Stars or not (A qualification system in the Netherlands, invented by de Dierenbescherming (Animal Protection organisation) to rate the amount of suffering of carnist food. You know, that star system where you soothe your conscience with a few cents more. Justifying something that is crooked. Talking about Better Life, while it is about: A Bit Less Terrible Life.
Just a fact: We are not foxes. Eggs are very bad for us. Read the relevant passages in “How not to Die” by NutritionFacts and eat a banana.
Another fact: Chickens die soon from laying eggs. It is therefore terribly barbaric for people to eat eggs. I am also getting pretty upset about all the lies about how good eggs are for you (not even relevant) and that you need animal products for your “manliness” (not true) and that we have the right to keep animals (explain that) and that we have to feed the world (it can be done more efficiently with plant-based products) and about Easter being a fun celebration (not for the chickens) and so on and so forth. Come out of that egg-induced coma and start thinking for chicken’s sake.

During Easter and other feasts, I think of all the animals that, after a short and intensely unhappy and painful life on the altar of our prosperity, are eaten by us, which negatively impacts our well-being ass well… And I think of the few chickens in the Netherlands that are lucky enough to end up somewhere where they are seen as a person, not as an egg dispensing machine. Like my friends from a micro sanctuary where exploited chickens are taken in and receive ALL the care they need. That means including a hormone implant that stops them from laying eggs. Which makes a huge difference for these animals.
I find it very inspiring that there are people who dedicate their lives to something they find very important and teach us a lesson with it.
One of the most undervalued animals in the world is the – completely overbred – chicken, which comes into the world to be quickly bred up and thoughtlessly eaten. Or to lay eggs for us. Which we then have painted by human children. A ritual of which most people no longer know the origins. Using eggs of which most people no longer know the origins.
Doing a good deed does not have to be so complicated. Sometimes it means not doing something, instead of doing something.

Happy Vegan Easter.