Why does God hate Bacon?

[CapnAwesome]

I don't understand the ban on eating pork that's found in the Old Testament and in the Qu'ran also. If there has ever been a rock solid argument against this Allah/Yaweh character it's his hatred of Bacon (and Lobster!) Does God not know how fucking delicious it is? Forget the problem of evil, the real problem is the problem of bacon. Does a God who knows everything not know how delicious bacon cheeseburgers were going to be? Seems pretty far fetched to me.

[Foxaèr]

It has something to do with the animal from which it comes being unclean.

[Minimalist]

The answer, alas, is quite simple.

This holy horseshit that the theists insist was writen by some "god" was just written by men. Further, the absence of pig bones at various archaeological sites in what was Judah indicates that the area was populated by herders of goats and sheep. Since religions always reflect the biases of the people who create them they decided to have their "god" say that pigs were bad.

So enjoy your cheeseburger. There is no 'god' who dislikes them. Just a bunch of long-dead goat herders who do not count for shit, anymore.

[Captain Colostomy]

I've heard a reasonable argument that undercooked pork, and the illnesses from consuming it, are the likely, ahem...'genesis' of a divine prohibition.

[Doubting Thomas]

But then why does God prohibit cheeseburgers? Leviticus warns against eating meat and dairy products together. That's why Orthodox Jews today use separate sets of dishes.

But I've never seen a good reason against eating shellfish. I love crab, shrimp, and lobster. My guess is that some guy back when Leviticus was being written ate some shrimp and had an allergic reaction to it such as anaphylaxis and died, so the priests of the time declared that God obviously must not approve of shellfish since this guy ate it and was punished by God with death.

[Jackalope]

I've heard a reasonable argument that undercooked pork, and the illnesses from consuming it, are the likely, ahem...'genesis' of a divine prohibition.

I've heard similar arguments, though I do not know whether they stand up to scrutiny.

There could be something to it, however - historically, there have been health issues regarding undercooked pork. Shellfish under certain conditions can carry deadly toxins that do not afflict finned fish. Rabbits often carry diseases. At one point, I went through Leviticus and Deuteronomy to try and make sense of the prohibitions from a non-theological POV (i.e. might there be practical reasons beyond godforbidsit). It's been some time, so I don't recall many of the forbidden foods off the top of my head, but as I recall many made some kind of sense.

It would not be unreasonable to suppose that ancient people might have noticed that people sometimes got sick after eating certain foods, and superstition being what it is, concluded that (the) god(s) must be angry. Hardly conclusive, absent any scholarship which I certainly do not feel like doing.

[Jackalope]

But then why does God prohibit cheeseburgers? Leviticus warns against eating meat and dairy products together. That's why Orthodox Jews today use separate sets of dishes.

Perhaps one of their evil pagan neighbors customarily ate meat and dairy together? Dunno. I suspect some prohibitions had some basis in rationality, and others not so much.

But I've never seen a good reason against eating shellfish.

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (a.k.a. "Red Tide").

Also - shellfish spoils VERY quickly and can make you wish you were dead before it spoils to the point where you wouldn't at least consider eating it if you were starving.

[Anomalocaris]

I don't understand the ban on eating pork that's found in the Old Testament and in the Qu'ran also. If there has ever been a rock solid argument against this Allah/Yaweh character it's his hatred of Bacon (and Lobster!) Does God not know how fucking delicious it is? Forget the problem of evil, the real problem is the problem of bacon. Does a God who knows everything not know how delicious bacon cheeseburgers were going to be? Seems pretty far fetched to me.

I've heard of several theories:

1. Papua New Guinean natives who extensively practiced cannibalism indicated taste and texture of human flesh is very similar to that of pork. So close is the resemblence that victims of cannibalism are called "long pigs" to indicate what is to be expected from them for the purpose of eating. It has been suggested that early prohibition against eating of pork may have been born as a side prohibition to the main prohibition against cannibalism.

2. Although pigs are quite clean when in the wild, pigs in many domesticated environments exist in filthy, disease breeding conditions. A prohibition against eating of pork may have been born of the observation that those societies which do not keep domesticated pigs for meat tend to suffer fewer diseases.

[StuW]

Pork Rinds FTW!!



Nom Nom Nom

[Ryantology]

And that's why man invented Yahweh.