AIBU to not understand why religious people won't eat pork

[CreamolaFoamless]

I love a bit of pork

I have looked into the whole pork v's religion thing but I still am at a lose?

Why is eating pork so bad?

Does anybody actually know?

This has been bugging me for sometime so would love hear other peoples thoughts on this

I remember being utterly incensed by the whole "cleanliness" thing, as pertaining to post-partum women, when I first read about it. Some years later, now I've had children, I think that in some ways, isolating women after giving birth probably did them a favour. Bit of time to recover, establish latching, etc, and I think that tribes where freshly post-partum women were told to stay in the tent with the baby out of fears they were "unclean" might have done better than other similar tribes.

Hundreds of years later, freshly delivered women aren't always treated well, even in the West. So many threads in AIBU about it, for example. Avalanches of relatives who expect the poor new mother to fetch and carry cups of tea for them.

For more stuff about 'unclean women', read "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant.

Re pork. I asked DSs what they fancied for Easter Monday (grandparents coming round, big special family lunch). DS1 straight away said pork: it's his fave roast. Usually I would say yes but I felt a bit odd about pork at Easter. I am essentially an Anglican but not practising, so why should I feel uncomfortable about eating pork during the celebration of Christ's resurrection? Bizarre. It made for an interesting convo with kids though.
"He was a Jew? But I thought he was a Christian"
"No, Christians are his followers, they were named for Him"
"eh? Well why didn't other Jews follow him if He was Jewish?"
"I dunno, have you done your homework?"

I like this thread

I thought peeps tasted like chicken

and looolz at reading a book or listening to the wireless, and Jesus being 'bang on about most things'

Jack they taste a bit like Shreddies. It's not too bad.

now we know what you've been up to in Antarctica, Tufty

eating Titus Oates

He was ok, a bit of sugar wouldn't have gone amiss though. I struggled on though.

People apparently taste like pork

People smell like pork when they burn - and yes I've smelt burning human flesh and I cant stand the smell of pork now - brings back too many memories. Bacon is fine - but pork roast or chops are a big no-no.

If we are on stupid question day, then I've got one I can't find the answer to: why did Ayatollah Khomeini ban parrots in Iran?

That sounds like a brilliant set up for a joke

I read a book once which looked at modern customs and observances from an anthropological and historical perspective. From memory it concluded that the pork issue (along with a lot of other religious instructions) began as a simple way to get uneducated populations to do things they didn't want to do. In this case stop eating pork which is delicious!

Interestingly they concluded that it was not a health issue as the evidence was that there was medical knowledge about beef borne disease long before they knew about pigs carrying worms etc. and it was in fact because in those days most middle-eastern people were at least semi-nomadic. This cased a problem for pigs because they can't survive being moved around in dry desert conditions. Apparently it was simpler and more effective to tell people that go said they can't eat meat than it was to educate them about the pigs' inability to sweat and thereby cool itself in hot conditions.

Dunno if I buy it, but it was interesting.

It's because pigs will eat anything. Their food doesn't go through as complex digestive processes as animals considered to be 'clean'.
So the meat from pigs is more likely to absorb contaminents than other meat. That's why Jews & Muslims won't eat pork even now.

I remember learning in re that when the Jewish people had left Egypt they lived in the desert so they had to be especially careful with hygiene and a lot if the good laws stemmed from that time. Pigs were considered dirty so were not eaten. Because Christianity and Islam all have cone out of Judaism we all share the early scriptures. Muslims have kept these laws on whereas Christians dropped them somewhere along the way. That's my understanding of it anyway.

I mean FOOD laws!

You really don't understand, OP?

It is commanded by God in the beginning of Old Testament (the part of the story of God and his people shared by Jews and Muslims).

Christians have been released from this rule by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

There are similarities between the smell of human and pork flesh in more than one state and this is why I think people also then think that they taste the same.

As to whether they do taste the same I have no idea.

Ayatollah Khomeini ban parrots

because they repeat every thing you saybecause they repeat every thing you saybecause they repeat every thing you saybecause they repeat every thing you saybecause they repeat every thing you saybecause they repeat every thing you saybecause they repeat every thing you say

which can be very dangerous if you are saying the wrong things

I agree that the principal reason is simply because it is commanded.

My personal theory is that food restrictions make the everyday sacred. It means that every time you sit down to a meal it is a religious statement. It also separates those in the religion from those outside, and the more religious from the less religious inside because they can't eat together and therefore can't really socialize together.

My nan always said pigs are dirty, not because they roll in mud, but because they eat their own shit. She's a Muslim

muslims and jews dont eat dogs or cats either but no-one gets in a tizz about that.

I don't eat pork, partly religious reasons and partly health reasons. I travel to parts of the world where health standards are not the greatest where it comes to the handling of meat. Pig meat is known to be particularly prone to infection and worms especially tapeworm etc. This is probably also the reason it was banned in Judaism and Islam because in the days of no refrigeration and very basic medical care, people couldn't afford to eat meats which were more likely to make them sick. Hence also the ban on shellfish some of which I do eat ( prawns mainly). For some reason I feel less guilty eating that. I nearly always ask about a dish to make sure but on occasion have had bits of pork in a dish that has been given me or that I initially assumed didn't have any. I don't freak out or anything, just do my best to pick it out quietly and write off any bits that have already been consumed as ' special chicken'.

Others are welcome to eat pork and enjoy it. I don't make a big deal of it but just personally don't want to eat it. I am not, by that, passing judgement on it.

LeQ - the rite for churching women is in the old Book of Common Prayer and still happened long after medieval times, FWIW.

In one of Jennifer Worth's books she points out that medically, in the 50s, people still thought women should be confined to bed after birth (a relic of churching) and she says that although we now know that was dangerous in terms of blood clots forming, back then with the amount of heavy work these women had to do, it was probably the lesser of two evils.

I think a lot of these old rules, though they seem awful to us, weren't just superstitution or simple prejudice.

I'm not sure if anyone has already mentioned this but Rastafarians are also not allowed to eat pork (although I'm not sure of the reasons why!)

Just in case you wanted to know :D

Personally I also love pork and any other bits of pig I can get my hands on!