h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Of course Catholic beliefs have changed over time. Catholics are Christians, for a start - and Christians were Jews who followed one particular rabbi. Somewhere along the line it became a separate religion known as "Christianity".

So it's hard to see how you can be a Christian of any stripe *without* allowing for beliefs to change over time. Perhaps if Christians need another emblem it should be a chamaeleon.

>>Purgatory and limbo have also changed in modern Catholic concepts and teaching<<

I stand by my previous comment about Catholics and making stuff up.


As an aside, we forgot to defrost the chicken yesterday so I had the ham instead. Guess I can't be a Muslim either. Suits me.

<>

No. A person who eats fish is not a vegetarian. They are a pescitarian. Or fishocrite, if you're feeling mean. Vegetarians can eat eggs and dairy but some choose to avoid one or t'other for various reasons. A vegan cannot eat any animal product whatsoever, because doing so will cause them to lose their superpowers.

I sometimes eat meat, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I have meals which can be classified as vegan. This has no ethical or idealogical basis, simply being what I feel like at the time.

"So it's hard to see how you can be a Christian of any stripe *without* allowing for beliefs to change over time."

Living memory is a huge factor in this... someone who's been alive a long time can remember things always being this way therefore they have always been this way and must remain so. It's illogical, and not actually restricted to religious beliefs (for example, English Heritage often have clashes with local authorities and the public because restoring something to what it actually looked like historically is at odds with how the proles think "it has always been")

"I stand by my previous comment about Catholics and making stuff up."

I'll repeat my earlier point: Christianity itself is "made up". Just like socialism, liberalism and nationalism. The very nature of an "idea" is that it comes out of someone's imagination; in other words, it's made up.

You don't need to convince me of that.

The unusual food attitudes is quite common in religions, ditto the various rituals and physical obsessions - not for nothing has it been compared to a wide variety of cognitive disturbance.

I was thinking more of the instinct and habit for beautification but extra metaphysical realms for the dead and the damned is also in keeping with 'making stuff up'

fish Fridays - well why not?

A vegan cannot eat any animal product whatsoever, because doing so will cause them to lose their superpowers.

'Are fish and eggs acceptable to a vegatarian, but not to a vegan'

I can't speak to the question of vegans as I've not knowingly met any, but from my experience of those who proclaim themselves to be vegetarians, vegetarians, like the followers of any other religion with dietary restrictions tend to be very flexible in their definition of what constitutes a 'vegetable'.

I've related the following dialogue before, but, here it is again:


Loudly Self Proclaimed Vegetarian Teaching Assistant (LSPVTA):

That lunch you kid had today looked good. What was it?

Me:

That was such-and-such vaguely Asian chicken.

LSPVTA:

How do you make it?

Me:

Well, you do this, that, and the other with bits of chicken over a hot thing.

LSPVTA:

That sounds like it would be good with shrimp.

Me:

You eat shrimp?

LSPVTA:

Yah.

Me:

Do you eat fish?

LSPVTA:

Yah.

Me:

So, you eat fish and crustaceans but you don't eat birds or mammals?

LSPVTA:

Yah.

Me:

And you're a vegetarian?

LSPVTA:

Yah.

Me:

Well, I eat birds and mammals but I don't eat fish or crustaceans. Can I be a vegetarian too?

LSPVTA:

"Vegetarian" is just a convenient piece of categorization. It's not some kind of legal contract where you have to stick to the letter of the law.

Would you really rather people gave you an exhaustive list of what they won't eat rather than saying "vegetarian"?

'Would you really rather people gave you an exhaustive list of what they won't eat rather than saying "vegetarian"?'

Not always.

My experience of vegetarians is mostly of vegetarians like the one I described in my last post who proclaim their vegetarianism whenever possible, particularly in contexts which have nothing to do with food. In that context I want neither an exhaustive list nor the proclamation.

If a prospective dinner guest mentions that they are a vegetarian, that revelation gives me virtually no information about what I can or cannot serve. I will need to go through the list: is fish okay? are eggs okay? can I put cream in the coffee? In that context it would save time to just get an exhaustive list and go about planning the menu.


Unfortunately, the term has become so varied in meaning that it has no meaning left.

That's what happens when you put people into boxes. Sometimes the box doesn't fit.

I'm not talking about putting people in boxes.

I'm talking about people putting themselves in boxes.


And, yes, the boxes don't fit.

As I said, it's just a convenient categorization. Convenient categorizations are like rules of thumb. They can be handy sometimes, but you can't rely on them.

Indeed.


I guess what bugs me is the type who wears their unreliable self-categorisation as a proud badge of honour and with a certain air of superiority.

>>..things always being this way therefore they have
always been this way and must remain so.. <<


I musta missed that 1966 lifting of the ban on Friday carnivorousness.
All my childhood Catholic friends were Friday fisheaters. Never heard
of any change and I was at a Jesuit College in 1966. Old habits (pun
intended) must be hard to break because some Catholics I know still
eat only fish on Fridays and restaurants tend to offer 'specials' of fish
on their Friday menus. In fact these present an opportunity for an old
beefeater like me to get a weekly ration of brain food.

~jwf~

Frankie Boyle - vegetarian option

[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

Don't worry, the vegetarians who go all smug and superior annoy me, too. I just don't like meat and it doesn't agree with me, so why eat it? But I am aware that other people are partial to steaks, but might turn up their noses at, say, aubergines.

My sister, on the other hand, says she doesn't eat "anything with ears" - meaning no mammals, really.

When I was working in Amsterdam, the work cantina always served fish on fridays. This despite their fish being so bad everybody would eat the vegetarian option or go to McDonald´s instead. I guess they were worried God would smite them if they didn´t.

Hilarious. A link to a clip from a BBC comedy show is deemed as unsuitable for a BBC website.

Maybe this will cheer you up (prossibly not.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12657101

Yes. I know the Frankie Boyle qute - I saw the show, and quote it to veggies whenever I can. Re the 'what's a vegitarian' question, one of the best I've heard is - I won't eat anything I can cuddle in a petting farm. From probably almost the only 'vegitarian' I, as a chef, have respect for.

mnd you, if you wanna plunge the depths of my contempt...announce you're a 'fruitarian'! From beyond arms reach for preference!