Mary

[laklak]

It could KILL me. Honestly.

[JimC]

Theologians have no conception of how fucked up they are...

[Svartalf]

Theologians try to follow the logic of an inherently illogical set of premises... that's the very definition of madness

[mistermack]

We tend to mock the religious attitudes towards sex. But actually, in the olden days, they made a lot of sense.

We have no idea of what it was like, before penicillin was invented. But back in those days, if you got a dose of the pox, there was no way to get rid of it.
And syphilis was pretty abundant too. King Henry VIII was one famous sufferer, but there would have been absolutely loads of others, who we never heard of.

And of course, there were no rubber condoms, so the chances of effective protection were pretty much zero.

So to preach against sex, except in marriage, was actually doing people a favour back in those days. ( or trying to at any rate ). It wasn't just done out of primness.

[Brian Peacock]

It wasn't a 'religious attitude', it was just good sense.

[JimC]

Religions sometimes co-opt good sense, and dress it up with sequins and sanctimony.

Pork may have had a particularly poor track record in transmitting parasites; making it religiously unclean further tightened the religious grip on lifestyle, while having some rationale...

"Do you see old Ben David in the corner over there, retching and puking away; he defied the priests and ate some of that heathen pork. Jahweh hath smiteth him..."

[laklak]

Thou salt not eat medium rare swine!

[Svartalf]

but shalt cook it well end enjoy it with a cream sauce