deep6sleep

As my wife(fundamentalis) and I (non believer) took a walk today, she mentioned that all of the rituals prescribed by god, in the book of Leviticus, were handed to the chosen people to stem the spread of disease.
Moses had such a multitude of people following him, that any outbreak of disease would have been catastophic. So god basically laid out a hygenic practices, cloaked in religious rituals, to maintain the health of the wondering horde of Hebrews.
I was flabbergasted by this and had never heard that. My first thought was that someone really had to do some mental gymnastics to justify the rituals in Leviticus. I did not argue, just looked at her wide eyed and nodded.

What is up with that explanation. Is this relatively new? I had never heard of such rationalization. Can someone shed some light? Thanks.

rickP

I don't think it's a stretch to say that the ancient israelites had figured out some basic cause and effect situations of the day. Pork has a tendency to kill you if you don't cook it right. If someone noticed that pork eaters tended to get sick, it's not that far to pork = bad. Later it got couched in ritual. I just don't think it requires a supernatural explanation.

deep6sleep

I agree that some rituals were done as a matter of survival, but I had never heard that all the rituals laid out in Leviticus were for hygiene to protect the Chosen people, and were totally god inspired, new and had never been used prior to the exodus.

Keith&Co.

That would take some proving...

The authors of the OT stole their mythology, made up their history and described the Earth as an inside out snow-globe, but their hygiene was divinely inspired?

HaRaAYaH

The Holiness code has:

NOTHING

do with health. It's not called the health code, it's called the holiness code. It's a method to attain holiness.

Civil1z@tion

If this is a divinely inspired code for a person's health, then why is masturbation frowned upon in Judeo-Christian beliefs (modern ones anyways)? Masturbating 5 times a week can cut the risk of prostate cancer by a third! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3072021.stm

So why is God so selective about his hygene codes?

Toto

Some of the rules of Leviticus might have an incidental effect of keeping the population healthy, and this would have improved the chances of these rules surviving. The same thing has been alleged of Native American rituals which forbid contact with rats, which spread the hantivirus.

But there is a more coherent explanation of the ten commandments here. They are basically an attempt at sympathetic magic.

There is certainly nothing relating to health in forbidding the wearing of clothing made from two different fibers, or forbidding two different crops from being grown in the same field.

peaceful_wasteland

Plus Jesus himself specifically disclaimed the Jewish traditions of handwashing prior to breaking bread in Mark 7. That makes it rather difficult to maintain the idea that the Bible as a whole is a good textbook for food hygiene.

7:1 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.
7:2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.
7:3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.
7:4 And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.
7:5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
7:6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7:7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
7:8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
...
7:14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
7:15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

John Kesler

The Bible shows no knowledge of the existence of microorganisms, much less that they are the cause of many diseases. Why isn't there anything in the Bible commanding the Israelites to wash their hands (with soap) before eating, delivering babies, treating wounds, etc.? Add to this the errors that the Bible contains--the sun can be "stopped" (Joshua 10/Sirach 46); visual stimuli have prenatal effects (Genesis 30) et al.-- and the claim that the Bible displays scientific foreknowledge is seen as dubius.

davidbach

This is as nonsensical as the notion that Leviticus is divinely inspired. In all societies until recent times (and still today in some Catholic and Mohammedan societies), there was a dualism between the priestly and secular authorities. In ancient times the "witch doctors" were the repositories of such wisdom and scientific, medical and legal knowledge as was available, and this is no doubt embedded in Leviticus. The secular authorities were far to busy killing and being killed to become educated. Just read Chronicles and Kings - not literally true, but almost certainly representative of the times.

David.