[sawaruna]

As long as you think there is a moral difference between eating and not eating animals, why would a religious vs. non-religious choice matter?

[Arnt]

I suppose what I'm saying is that lots people accept religious choice without thinking closely. If your choice isn't religiously motivated, they may take a look at the factory-made gloop you eat, notice that it doesn't look all that different from the factory-made gloop on the other shelf in the supermarket, and conclude (rightly or not) that your moral choice is a shallow one and despise you for your shallowness.

It doesn't matter whether you're actually shallow or thoughtful. IMO it doesn't even matter whether you eat factory-made gloop, so long as the supermarkets stock shelves full of plastic-wrapped stuff labelled "vegan" and you might be assumed to buy and eat it.