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

the bible tells us to eat snakes. why did i not realize this before

i just heard a nice song on the radio with the immortal words "if adam and eve had eaten the snake instead of the apple, we would still be in paradise"

now there's some food for thought

Hi Pierce the

Welcome back. You obviously had a wonderful holiday

thank you, christiane, i cannot complain

Is it possible that God originally intended for Adam and Eve to be vegetarians?

will we ever know?

After the time machine gets built, we will.

not that it will change anything, i'm afraid

unless we change history, but i hear that is dangerous

oh well, it will be some time yet until said machine is invented - and then you will probably spend a lot of time tracking down adam and eve - not to mention their maker

I would have to wait in line for a chance at that last bit.

could we make the pope put in a good word for you? i hear you have sung in many churches

His minions have heard me sing. I sang in Saint Peter's in 2007. I sang in three or four other places in Central Italy, as well.

there you go then

except...

how do we know god is not - say - presbyterian?

or jewish, muslim, buddhist, hindu or [insert religion of your choice here]?

I saw an excellent travelogue once upon a time in which a biblical archaeologist was attempting to trace the location of the biblical Eden on a basis of the biblical description and the etymologies of the place names as they changed over time.

He made a quite convincing presentation, placing it on a location in present day modern Turkey.

It happens there's a modern day town with high rises on the site, but also ancient ruins and monuments of great antiquity in the vicinity.

*envisions a disaster movie about snakes on a plate*

i lived that movie, terran

when my mum tried to cook eels it usually ended in disaster

re 13:

i heard about that ITIWBS. or at least something similar. long time ago. after meticulously studying the holy bible and counting backwards a socalled scientist was able to determine where and when paradise happened

and here i am, hardly remembering what i had for supper yesterday

You had food for supper, Pierce, as did I. Food is highly recommended for those who would like to avoid wasting away. If Eden was in Turkey, there are worse places it could have been.

I'm not hostile to religion, not at all. I think the existence of religious belief has kept our species from being even worse than it currently is. In societies that have tried to expunge religion from their midst (Soviet-era Russia, for instance), existence has been horrible for a great many people. Grandfather Frost may be a myth, but children could have happy memories of his once-a-year visits. Even in an unhappy adulthood, you can still support your weary spirits with happy memories.

We've had at least two millennia of seesawing back and forth between the polar concepts of Divine Revelation through a hierarchy and Revelation directly to each individual soul. The Roman Catholic Church has almost all its eggs in the first basket. The Muslim Faith and many Christian Protestant denominations rely heavily on the second one. There is something to be said about both approaches, but they can both go haywire, too. Without restraints, the top people in the hierarchy can become corrupt and harmful to society. Without a social contract, the individuals who report directly to God or Allah can proceed right into nutcase territory. Fundamental Protestant sects have often spearheaded the war against Science on the ground that it violates the scriptures.

hmmm, difficult stuff this religion thingy. apparently. whodathunk

It's a huge responsibility to figure out the mysteries of existence. Those mysteries will still be out there demanding to be dealt with no matter what you do. Ironically, believing in a God who is fully capable of making everything work out is a pretty good strategy for relieving yourself of some major burdens. "It's God's problem," you can tell yourself.

Just struck I hadn't thrown in a good recipe for snake.

Snake can be substituted to good effect for the chicken broth used to make egg flower soup, a traditional Chinese recipe.

Usually chicken feet or chicken necks are used to make the broth, but snake is, if anything, even richer than chicken necks.

Having made the broth, boiling your dressed out snake until the flesh comes off the bones, strain through a colander to remove the solid parts of the snake, make a batter with one level teaspoon of flour per hens egg, and drip into the boiling chicken broth a teaspoon at a time, one half cup of batter per quart of broth.

Top with a teaspoon full of dried chives (or reasonable facsimile) per quart, stir, serve.

Allow diners to season to taste themselves with seasonings (soy sauce, powdered kelp, sea salt, monosodium glutamate, whatever) at the table.

The chicken broth based variant can be had at just about any good Chinese restaurant in the western world.

Recipes like this one can lend dignity to a wilderness emergency survival situation.