Cannibalism

Humans will generally not engage in cannibalism unless food is scarce or is part of a religious ritual. An example of the first is sieges, when cities food supplies could run dangerously low. The Yanomani people grind up the bones of the dead and eat them as part of their spiritual believes. Despite the controversial movie Cannibal Holocaust, they do not engage in this behavior in everyday life.

 

It's one of those morals that humans generally agree upon. There is some reason behind it. Why eat another human when you have other food sources?

 

Think about it, would you like somebody to start nibiling on you?

 

The reason it's so taboo is a very simple, predominantly religious one. (Quite frankly, most laws and things we find taboo were somehow influenced by religious morals...people just don't think of them that way anymore).

It's because as humans we have respect for our dead. We don't know anything factual about a soul (or lack thereof) so we treat the fallen with respect. This attitude's stood the test of time.

Heck, before Descartes people tried to have as little physical contact with the dead as possible. Descartes (as a philosopher) proposed the idea that the body, mind and soul are separate entites (and the soul must depart after death).

(Of course as an interesting side note: That means all of Da Vinci's anatomy work was controversial)

 

It's not about sensitivity...it's about not letting people go around murdering, or mistreating others for the sake of bettering some cause. Medical science would ALSO be better off if we had a doctor smash open the heads of any depressed, bipolar (etc.) people to examine differences in their brain...but that's hardly insensitive, it's just cruel.

To condone the work of Hitler isn't exactly the kind of thing I would be proud of...say he was an efficient, powerful leader, perhaps. But condoning his means of achieving this...

Well, to put it differently...perhaps you don't value life, but most people seem to.

Nuremberg Trials - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


You've got some reading to do^^

 

What, you just expect people to give up a standing that has held for centuries and start eating people? Religion would entirely stop that, because people have a soul according to them. Besides, cannibals were considered "barbarians" by civilized Europe. Would you want to be considered that?

 

First of all, calm down. If you don't, I'll be forced to either leave or stop reading your posts.

You've proven to me you don't know about how the men were tried after getting these findings, because in the article I linked it explains (or perhaps in an article linked to from there) the exact means used to obtain this knowledge, and the reason many of the men responsible were put to death. The reason the knowledge was discarded soon follows. (One of them being: we don't NEED knowledge of how to turn human beings into soap, thank you very much. It's not exactly medically enlightening knowledge)

If you had bothered to read the article, and related ones (and not act like a little girl) then you'd have noticed a little thing I personally refer to as "protecting the innocent." In underage felons, their names are not released to the public. In rape cases, the victims names are not named (unless they wish for their names to be released). In war crimes of this magnitude, the knowledge is discarded out of respect, as per the Nuremburg Trials (which I linked you to). Everytime anyone used this knowledge (which isn't as medically relevant as you're implying), they'd have to pay proper respect to the victims...they won't. So out of respect, it's discarded. People don't just do things for no reason...there's a definite reason they chose not to take the knowledge to heart. Feel free to read...or not, whatever.

You just posted you're not opposed to the belief in a soul. No religion claims to know exactly what happens to a soul after death (the closest probably being Buddhism, but even they don't explain the exact mechanism by which the soul (if you will) leaves the body). Does it leave directly upon death? (By the way, when exactly IS death? The medical convention is to declare someone dead when the brain ceases to function...how can we be assured this is exactly how death works?) Does it leave 100 years after death?

Personally, I believe the soul stays for a little while after death to help the family/friends/etc cope with the loss...it then departs during the funeral. Can you refute this claim? Can you prove it, or any other claim? No, because the mechanism of life/death is impossible for us to understand as we cannot make measurements on it.

Thus, we treat our fallen with respect.


Nobody knows all about everything...so don't be arrogant and listen to what people are saying instead of getting insulted and throwing a hissy fit. (By the way, I didn't make you throw one...I'm just calling it as it was).

Go ahead and get mad again, I'm done here.

 

Cannibalism is a religion?

 

Hm...pretty sure nobody implied that Seph.

The general consensus seems to be (thus far) that religion is a matter opposing cannibalism. What was posted that made you think someone was saying cannibalism was a religion?

Maybe you meant one of the first posts in this thread. Betty_Boop was saying that some african (perhaps? I'm not sure) tribes have religious ceremonies involving cannibalism...but they don't practice it on a regular basis.

 

THAT IS NOT TRUE!! WE DON'T DO THAT rrrrr.

 

Scary post there.

 

Cause you're sort of narrowing it down to say that we can make people in our diet.