I always enjoy lunch with him for the conversations that we have.
This was one of my favorites.
He said, “Why are pigs haram?”
I said, “Because it’s not clean, and our religion likes cleanliness. A lot.”
“Why is it unclean?”
“Because pigs don’t sweat. They don’t have perspiration glands. So all of the dirty stuff that’s supposed to be excreted from the body as sweat, are actually mounded under the skin as fat, a.k.a lard; the thing that makes New Orleans dishes so tasty. It’s actually the same thing that makes canine snouts unclean, because that’s the ‘sweat’ orifice.”
“So why can’t we eat dogs? If it’s just the saliva and snout that’s unclean, why can’t we eat the rest of it?”
“Because dogs are carnivores.”
“So?”
“Carnivores eat raw meat. Raw meat contains blood. Blood is unclean because of all the medical reasons why you can’t just transmit blood between people without testing it first.”
“But we eat poultry! Poultry eat worms and bugs!”
“And worms and bugs don’t bleed the way a prey would when hunted by carnivores.”
His reaction was so cute.
First he made a nod/shrug.
Then he mumbled “makes-sense-to-me-and-this-I-can-buy.”
Then he finished his lunch thinking about Saksang.
*Note: Saksang is an Indonesian dish, consisting of pork meat, cooked in pig blood.
9 afterthinkers:
Barkallahu feeki ya ukhti'll 3azizah :)
It's rare that we get to see a religious discussion that is purely logical, informative and without the rhetoric and preaching that people get so hung up on.
You're one in a million Hning ^_^ (you always were)
و إيـاك، أخي!
Now you try.
Pick a religious argument, and make it logical.
It's not that hard.
Just read.
Always love your comments (and superegoboosts) around.
*tighthug*
Yeah, how relevant is all of that now though? I eat a LOT of pork, and it does not seem to be doing me any harm.
The question he asked was in reference to a dogma which he needed some form of logical justification to understand.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this issue lacks relevance because you never questioned it yourself, have you?
I quite regularly ask myself how relevant the teachings of religion are to today's society, but I am from a different religious doctrine than you.
I would interpret religious scripture as a human interpretation of God's will, based on meditation, subject to human error and bias. How much of scripture is culture and how much is religious is an open question to me. But, as I said, I am from a different religious doctrine to you.
Interesting. You should write in Bahasa Indonesia. Enlighten your fellow Indonesians! :D
As for my stance on this halal-haram issue, I like the "because God says so" explanation better. An unexciting explanation, perhaps, but still an explanation. Making sense religion is not really my thing; it will only lead to infinite regress; the "why" question just won't end.
Writing in Indonesian has always been on my mind. I might. One day. As long that you do the promotions for me. :D
You're right, it would've been so much easier to just nod-nod-nod and not ask too many questions. It's the epitome of faith that you can believe without question.
Obviously I don't have much of faith, and I'm doing it like the Israelis when Moses' Lord commanded them to slaughter a Heifer: Are you kidding? What kind of heifer? What color? What attitude does she carry?
I could get myself in trouble some day with these questions. No, wait, I already have!
Darn...now I have to blog about the journey back into the light...tsk...
Permission to share (copy paste that is). Will link back and credit. Ok?
VF, #feelfree.
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