faith and its effect on eating pigs

[Brend_duh]

Im not one to be to heavy into my religion, but I follow the basics; no murder,etc. I dont really have restrictions on my eating habbits .Im thinking no cannibalism, with the murder thing and all, but other than that -whateva. Yet some how i always think about the thing with the pigs. I know lots of religions dont eat them for different reasons, but my reluctancy resides in the fact of their intellengence. People say that they are smarter than dogs. Poor things. This makes me feel guilty. I think of dogs, with their intellengence and emotions, and think to myself, "I could never eat a dog"....."or can i?"Ive desided that If I can order chineese, I can have some bacon.....atleast I know where the bacon comes from

[gumby013]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOU!

[Stranger678]

I've had dog and cat. Dog is good. CAt sucks. but pig.....ahh pig how much I love you. So going by your intelligence theory, cannibalism is going to rule.

[spooky]

eating pigs back in the day gave you bad parasites. cooking things thoroughly isnt even done today, so its no surprise it might have been worked into the 'rules' of a religion.

interesting fact:the medical symbol,the caduceus, which is really old, is actually parasites (guinea worm i think?) wrapped around a rod. back in the day, this type of parasite you wrapped around a rod to pull it out, turning it a little more every couple hours, if it broke, it could kill you, through toxins causing elephantitus and clogging blood flow. early medicine. yummy. i dont know what the wings represent. doing it fast?(or would that be bunny feet? wait, thats luck.../shrug)


moral: parasites are bad for the congregation, parasites can come from poorly cooked swine, swine is the devil. say no to pork in anceint times.

[Brend_duh]

I totally agree w/ ya. I believe that all the ancient scripts, reguardless of religion, is a basic handbook on the basic rules of how to keep from dropping dead. If you follow the rules, youll pretty much be ok in all aspects of your life... dont eat bad meat, be nice , dont kill...etc....follow these, youll live longer , and feel happier than if you didnt. People can question the divinity of anyones "god, or gods".... but try to find better messages in any other 'text books' if you will.

[ryanknapper]

Think about this: Chickens. What would happen if all of the chickens of the world suddenly disappeared? First off, there would be a dramatic increase in the consumption of pork and beef. Two animals that two rather large groups don't like being eaten. People will start eating one just to spite the other. Then? War.
In the end, after the revolution, I will have teams of minions clearing the dead away from my new, palatial estate. And a bacon cheeseburger.

I'm telling you, chickens have worked tirelessly for centuries to make the world dependent on them. Their infiltration is nearly complete.

[slugymay]

Originally Posted by slugymay

A caduceus (kə-dū'sē-əs, -shəs, -dyū'-; kerykeion in Greek; Unicode U+2624 (☤) on the Miscellaneous Symbols table) is a winged staff with two snakes wrapped around it. It was an ancient astrological symbol of commerce and is associated with the Greek god Hermes, the messenger for the gods, conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves. It was originally a herald's staff, sometimes with wings, with two white ribbons attached. The ribbons eventually evolved into snakes in the figure-eight shape. The number eight is important to the practitioners of judicial astrology.

In some cases, depictions of the Greek kerykeion can be radically different from that of the traditional caduceus (as in the picture at right). These representations will feature the two snakes atop the wand (rod), crossed to create a circle with the heads of the snakes resembling "horns." In this form, it looks remarkably similar to the symbol for the planet Mercury - while Mercury the god is the Roman name for Hermes, who carries the kerykeion, or caduceus.

In the seventh century, the caduceus came to be associated with a precursor of medicine, based on the Hermetic astrological principles of using the planets and stars to heal the sick. As a symbol for medicine, the caduceus is often used interchangeably with the Rod of Asclepius (single snake, no wings), although learned opinion prefers the Rod of Asclepius, reserving the caduceus for representing commerce.[1] Historically, the two astrological symbols had distinct meanings in alchemical and astrological principles. Some medical organizations join the serpents of the caduceus with rungs to suggest a DNA double-helix.

The symbol's origins are thought to date to as early as 2600 BC in Mesopotamia, and there are several references to a caduceus-like symbol in the Bible, namely in Numbers 21:49, and 2 Kings 18:4. During the Exodus, Moses was instructed by God to fashion a pole upon which he was to position a serpent made of bronze; when looked upon, this Nehushtan, as it was called in Hebrew, would spare the lives of the Israelites stricken by venomous snake bites. The intent was that people would look upward and be reminded to pray to God, but eventually the meaning was forgotten and this symbol was apparently worshiped by the Hebrew people until the reign of Hezekiah as described in 2 Kings 18:4.

Wiki

[Brend_duh]

Originally Posted by gumby013

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOU!

Thanks !!!back atcha!!!!!!!!!

[spooky]

Originally Posted by Carl Zimmer

People knew about parasites elsewhere in the world. The ancient Egpytians and Chinese prescribed different sorts of plants to destroy worms that lived in the gut. The Koran tells its readers to stay away from pigs and from stagnant water, both sources of parasites. For the most part, though, this ancient knowledge has only left a shadow on history. The quivering strings of flesh -- now known as guinea worms -- may have been the fiery serpents that the Bible describes plaguing the Israelites in the desert. They certainly plagued much of Asia and Africa. They couldn't be yanked out at one go, since they would snap in two and the remnant inside the body would die and cause a fatal infection. The universal cure for guinea worm was to rest for a week, slowly winding the worm turn by turn onto a stick to keep it alive until it had crawled free. Someone figured out this cure, someone forgotten now for perhaps thousands of years. But it may be that that person's invention was remembered in the symbol of medicine, known as the caduceus: two serpents wound around a staff.

http://www.carlzimmer.com/parasite_2.html

more on the medical symbol:
http://drblayney.com/Asclepius.html

[cogy]

i remember my rabbi saying jews avoided swine because it was infectious and everyone repeating this as sound reasoning. then later i read it had nothing to do with that; it was more of a binding cultural practice that helped unite people through rituals of co and omission, the meat of religion, if you will.

if you think about it, the pig isnt singled out so much in the ot, its only a well known example of kosher dietary law. a lot of other things are forbidden too, and while some of them happen to have health benefits, [as well as less discussed disadvantages], their purpose was religious and not medical.

and religion provides some basic laws for a functioning society as well as a stern penal system, but i think the religions that thrive today made it because they evolved into beliefs that had the best chances of being passed down and picked up by new adherents, not because they contained the best laws or even good laws / codes / dietary guidelines.

sort of the same way as an individual of a species may not be the most attractive, perfect specimen, but if it has a great advantage in producing viable offspring, its genes will be passed on.

as late as the 1920s in america, tapeworms were marketed, sold, and consumed by women as a dieting aid. the parasites were ingested,
then when the desired weight loss was achieved, the second part of the diet was a pill that killed the worms. more or less. thank god science invented bulimia.