A little food for thought.

Are you the type of person who generally follows the rules?  I like to consider myself someone who is not a rule-breaker by nature or nurture.  Yet, almost all of us are breaking the "law" everyday, two to 6 times a day.  I know you're thinking right now, "I haven't broken the law today."

Answer yes or no to the following questions:
Have you ever eaten a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on your way to work?
Have you ever eaten a cheeseburger?
Have you ever drank a glass of wine with your chicken florentine for dinner?
Have you eaten during the holy month of Ramadan in the daytime?

If you've answered yes to any of the above questions, then you've probably broken a religious food law (or laws) somewhere in the world.

 For every religious law against homosexuality, spreading of menstrual fluids, and blasphemy, there are many more laws telling humanity what we can and cannot eat.  Why is almost every religion involved in something that every human needs for survival?  It has never made any sense to me.  While I do understand that most vegetarians and vegans make their food choices based on health reasons (a few atheists and agnostics I know are vegetarians and vegans), a lot of religious people eat certain foods because they believe it was commanded on the human race by a deity.

To counteract this strange line of logic (which most religious logic is anyway), I posed the following question to a Catholic friend of mine a while back.  Imagine you are stranded on an island where there are no major sources of food to be found.  There is a steady supply fresh water but after a week of only eating a couple of edible plants and small insects you really have a craving for a substantial meal.  The only major source of food is birds and fish.  Do you make a fishing pole and start fishing?  Or do you starve?  The answer I was given was that, "In an emergency you can break the food law to survive.  God wouldn't ask me to starve if I were in that kind of danger."

This poses multiple questions:
1.  What constitutes an "emergency" bad enough for God to let you break his law to survive?
2.  If you chose to starve to death, then wouldn't God reward you in heaven for following his "perfect" law in such a difficult circumstance?
3.  If God's laws are "perfect" and he is all-knowing, to ensure your survival (to spread his message, of course) wouldn't he answer your prayers for food and then know to send you what "correct" food to eat so that the food laws aren't broken?

Overall, I believe that religious food laws are just another level of control to keep the herd in line.  Any deity or deities that think humanity needs to follow rules about one of our most basic needs has some serious vanity issues.  I could go on about how religious food law impacts our economy.  Yet, it is getting late and I need sleep.

Post your thoughts, comments, and/or rants in the comments.