Why does God prohibit random stuff?

[self biased]

Don't go. The drones need you.

They look up to you.

[Kidlicious]

This might just be the greatest thread of internet history. T-shirt material, oh you'd make millions! "There is no butt sex in heaven". Please let me steal that?

I mean... if there is no butt sex in heaven, then there is no heaven. Or... if the butt sex loving people are in hell, then how am I supposed to choose which is which? What if Hell is Heaven?

I don't think you are going to like spending eternity with people who like to do that. There's nobody to stop them when you don't want it anymore.

[Donegeal]

God doesn't prohibit anything. Stuffy people who've been dead 500 to 5000 years prohibit things.

[Elok]

So, God doesn't prohibit murder, rape or theft?

Some d-bag links to an OT atrocity story in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

[giblets]

God doesn't exist and won't stop you from doing those things

[Kidlicious]

God doesn't exist and won't stop you from doing those things

Cause giblets says so

[Ben Kenobi]

Arsenic is even worse for you, but that doesn't even warrant a mention

So the question should be, "why does God mention these specific things and not others"? which is a much more interesting question.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

For the sake of Loin not leaving, and leaving us with even worse Ben to non-Ben ratio on this board, here is one answer:

If you put the "ban" into the context of the story, ie, there is this God dude who said that he will support one guy and make his offspring live, spread and prosper until the end of the world - if you are God - what do you do? Making this happen is a tall order for anyone including him.

Do you need some rules in order to help make that happen? I guess so. (edit: thus; not random selection of prohibitions)

No buttsex is a rule that defines the "people", which actually defines the relationships between them, ie sex is not for pleasure, but for procreation (keep in mind we are working here with people who are basically just come out of the stone age and have discovered writing in Civ terms) to ensure that they keep it as a part of it's identity going forward.

For bacon, I guess it defines their food supply - do not forget that there is a whole section of the natural world prohibited there to be eaten, and pigs are just the most prominent members, so there may still be some not yet discovered benefits of long term viability of this prescription of the diet.

There are other rules as well, some about hygiene and what not, even some weirder ones, but all in all whatever was prescribed, went into the tradition seems to have worked.

Where are Babylonians today, Persians (with their religion intact, ie nowhere), old pre-Christian Egyptians, Phoenicians, let alone some smaller sized tribes like Jews themselves - thus the experiment can be considered a total success.

[Elok]

Chris Hitchens had a plausible-sounding theory that the ban on pork was due to a lot of the neighboring Semitic tribes practicing human sacrifice. Supposedly roasting pork smells an awful lot like roasting human flesh.

[Proteus_MST]

I for my part heard about the hypothesis, that the ban on pork was for hygienic reasons ... because pigs, in the rather warm climate of the near east, would often get diseases (which then would endanger the health of the consuments of the meat).
And that the (religious) leaders from the communities would notice this (i.e. consuments of (tainted) pork getting sick) and conclude, that "god" doesn´t want humans to eat pork

[giblets]

Trichinosis is God's punishment for eating undercooked pigs

[Uncle Sparky]

Does god specifically ban buttsex with pigs? Porking pork....

[Kidlicious]

I can't believe loinburger doesn't like posting here anymore.

[Aeson]

Pigs are intelligent omnivores who harbour diseases that have killed hundreds of millions of people. Without natural predators (we've wiped them all out) pig populations would explode. It is only our insatiable appetite for bacon that have kept their numbers from getting out of hand.

God clearly wanted a pig army to rise up and kill us all, because he couldn't just drown us all again without breaking his word.

[N35t0r]

Where are Babylonians today, Persians (with their religion intact, ie nowhere), old pre-Christian Egyptians, Phoenicians, let alone some smaller sized tribes like Jews themselves - thus the experiment can be considered a total success.

I think that the idea of the arbitrary rules is to set up a strong distinction between 'god's chosen people' and 'everyone else'.
It seems to have worked, at least for Jews.