There is only one way that the Bible, directly in one sense and indirect in another, actually addresses the morality of human cannibalism, and it does not have to do with humans being a creature metaphysically superior to lesser animals. As I already wrote about years ago [1], murdering someone to eat their flesh would be Biblically immoral either way since murder is sinful, and a capital sin at that (Genesis 9:6, Exodus 21:12-14, Numbers 35:30-31). Killing someone who wants to be put to death to feed others would still be murder. It would not matter if cannibalism among humans is universally sinful for the actions that might situationally precede it to be morally wrong. This, however, does not mean that one human eating the flesh of another person is itself evil just because behaviors leading up to cannibalism in certain situations are independently condemned. The issues are connected, just not in every single aspect.
Humans are indeed animals since we are biological creatures like them, albeit very different from other species even if Christianity is not true. An animal is simply a biological organism; we differ from them in form and possibly in the extent to which our consciousness is complex. Mosaic Law goes into extensive detail about which animals are permissible to eat and which are not. Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 are the primary chapters of the Torah pertaining to which categories of animals are morally acceptable for use as food, with some additional food-related obligations being revealed outside of these chapters, like how eating blood is sinful regardless of the animal it originates from (Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 7:26-27, 17:10-14, 19:26, etc.) [2]. Eating the fat of any animal, even if the creature is not sinful to eat by default, is likewise condemned (Leviticus 7:22-24). Blood and fat are excluded from consumption as parts of the body rather than as types of animals.
Now, the obligations behind the dietary laws are connected to God's nature, as with all moral obligations rather than irrelevant social customs or personal preferences, and his nature is unchanging (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17). Though they are far from the most important of moral commands, these dietary laws are not overturned by Jesus or at any other time in the New Testament period as it might appear upon superficial examination of the likes of Matthew 15 and Acts 11 [3]. If it is immoral to consume a creature, it would always be immoral on Biblical philosophy, before or after Christ's incarnation, death, and ascension. His entire appearance in Biblical chronology is utterly irrelevant to practically every part of Mosaic Law in this sense, and Jesus himself admits as much (Matthew 5:17-19). Many who identify themselves as Christians only deny this because of fallacious church traditions or the inconvenience of adjusting their culinary habits as needed.
As for the types of animals permitted, any animal that walks on land must both have split hooves and chew its cud (Leviticus 11:1-8, Deuteronomy 14:3-8), any aquatic animal must have both fins and scales (Leviticus 11:9-12, Deuteronomy 14:9-10), and there are other divisions for flying creatures and bugs. Humans neither have split hooves nor chew their cud. Thus, they would be morally forbidden from consumption, but not strictly because one would be eating the meat or organs of humans in particular. It is not because humans have a special status above other animals that this would be illicit. Like with many other issues, still, the Bible does not have to say in exact words that certain things are sinful in order for it to be clear from other exact words. Another example would be how the fact that drunkenness is sinful (Deuteronomy 21:18-20, though that is not the focus in this passage) would necessitate that intentionally getting high from applicable drugs for non-medical reasons is also sinful.
In the aforementioned post about cannibalism and murder from years ago [1], I focused on how some cannibalism being sinful for tangential reason does not mean it is always evil, as well as how eating an already dead body for survival reasons is not the same as more gratuitously eating other people. It is true that murder being wrong would not necessitate that cannibalism is immoral in all scenarios or with all motivations. It also is not the case that something is evil because of subjective revulsion, which is all many could appeal to for this matter. Whenever there are intentions of malice or degradation (such as eating someone to express disrespect for them as a human), cannibalism would also be Biblically sinful (Deuteronomy 25:3) in addition to when it occurs in the context of murderous practices, but, again, this does not encompass all logically possible forms of cannibalism. Only the kosher obligations would render all human cannibalism immoral.
When I wrote the other post, and like this one, many posts are written quite some time ahead of their release date (up to years), I had not yet specifically examined New Testament passages at least somewhat connected to the dietary laws. Matters of core morality, like physical assaults (Exodus 21:15, 18-19, 22-27), blasphemy (Leviticus 24:13-16), oppressing foreigners (Exodus 22:21, 23:9), and so on would not change with time or culture regardless, as well as the divinely prescribed punishments of the Torah tied to them. If the act remains wrong, then the attached terrestrial penalty could only remain just and binding on all people and nations at all times. The kosher laws deal with something far less crucial than the likes of these. I had still realized that it clearly does not logically follow from murderous or malicious cannibalism being evil for separate reasons that cannibalism itself is inherently sinful on the Christian worldview. It was nevertheless only after that post was written that I thoroughly analyzed passages that could be misinterpreted to "support" abolishing the dietary laws of the Torah. This category of Mosaic Law and the ramifications focused upon in this article had yet to be fully incorporated into my worldview.
[3].
No comments:
Post a Comment