It's often framed as a system of moral philosophies and the way the impact our behavior and interactions with the world and society. So yes, in many ways, veganism is a religion, or at the very least religion adjacent. Religions aren't limited to belief in a magical sky daddy.
To be clear, it is clearly bigotry to use "religion" as a label in an effort to be dismissive of anyone's personal moral belief system or philosophy.
The cardinal directions are north, east, south, and west, as on a map. They are not left, right, up, and down because the cardinal directions are not relative to the observer. The problem of differentiating D-Pad, Stick, shoulder, trigger, etc. can be frustrating too (especially when they are shown on screen as icons with confusingly minor differences instead of text), but that is another matter entirely.