What's the "religious perspective" on abortion? On capital punishment? On war? On eating animals? In particular, what do Christians think about those topics? What's the "Christian view" on these issues?

These questions are often asked, but honestly there really is no answer to them because the question is founded on a false assumption, namely that there typically is one, and only on, position that "religious people" take on issues.

But this is false. For just about any controversial moral or social issue (but probably not all of them . .), there is no one position that all, or even most, "religious people," including Christians, accept.

For example, some people think that "the Christian view" on abortion is that it's (always) wrong, but that's not correct: some Christians think it's wrong and others think it's not wrong and, with luck, they have some reasons to explain why they think what they do.

The same is true about ethics and animals questions. Many people say their religion allows them to eat animals. Others argue that if you take a closer look at the fundamental ideas of that religion, you find that that religion has resources that strongly condemn raising and killing to animals to eat them, wear them and even experiment on them.

So, there's the Christian Vegetarian Association, the Jewish Vegetarian Society, at least some pages about Islam and vegetarianism, and organizations and thinking based in many other religions (indeed, just about all of them). From each religion, there are people advocating for animals and all things veggie.

So, my suggestion is this: if one talks about religious views, one should get specific and avoid the too common false, blanket generalizations like those above.