Capybaras are classified as fish in Catholic canon law, on the grounds that they spend their lives in water. I’m guessing that a party of conquistadors was on the verge of starvation and got their priest to petition the Vatican to issue a retroactive ruling in their favour.
Iirc, both Jewish and Islamic law are explicit that if you can break kosher/eating halal if you have no other options for food. Keeping yourself alive is more important.
Is there not something similar in catholic theology?
In Catholic doctrine you can break literally all rules except denouncing the holy spirit, if you confess and repent afterwards.
I’m kinda tempted to go to a catholic priest, tell them my full life story and see if they could even come up with penance for me. Like as a gay trans man, I imagine I’d be told to detransition but I’m far enough along that I can’t really go back - I’m not even sure what they’d consider a sin at this point.
The current pope is pretty lenient towards LGBTQ+ compared to most other religions and especially compared to old school Catholic pope's. Jesus was a man of peace and the current pope seems to think that was his ultimate message for mankind.
You're always a sinner anyway in catholics.
I don't have a source for this but I had been told it was in an attempt to try to convert Venezuelans to Catholicism
You don't like the religion?
Here, we made the big dog a fish, are you happy now?
Huh so apparently it's because of Latin?
Quoting an old comment
Fish isn't considered meat because English and Latin are slightly different languages. For hundreds of years Catholics were not allowed to eat meat on Friday. But the language of the church is Latin, and what Catholics were not allowed to eat is 'carne' which is the flesh of creatures from the land or the sky. So fish was fine.
Also. around the mediterrainian, fish is a food staple of the poor. The point is to eliminate excess.
I'd argue that an inlander ordering fish at a fancy restaurant on a Friday during Lent is not following the spirit of the law (which can be more of a discipline than a rule, depending on the local episcopal authority), especially if it's not a special occasion and the fish was caught hundreds of kilometers away.
The inlander could eat freshwater fish like trout or carp, no fancy saltwater fish.
I can't believe all this religious people that pull off these loopholes really believe in a god...
If it really exists, it's gonna bust your ass.
In some religious traditions, it's not believed that they're loopholes, or cheating.
If the written rules are the precise literal words of your deity who can make no errors, then if something is technically allowed it's allowed on purpose.
The deity wouldn't make a mistake or try to trick people into following a rule that wasn't written.
Yahweh says no tending a fire on Saturday. Alright, what is "fire"? Is electricity fire? Is it a prohibited labor? Time to think.
God says no eating creatures of the land or sky. Well, otters aren't of the land or sky, so fair game.
Allah says no pork unless your life depends on it. Is processed porcine collagen still pork if it's used in artificial heart valves? What level of chemical transformation is required to remove the "pork-ness"?
The belief that a deity cares about the spirit of the the written rules and not the words is itself a religious belief.
Which, in some religions, means it's open to debate to figure out exactly what it means. :P
I wonder why your comment is being downvoted. As if understanding people different from myself is a bad thing.
I was wondering that myself, but I'm not one to complain about Internet points.
My theory is people have an unrecognized internalization of the new testament attitude towards a legalistic approach to religion, which is ultimately where the "spirit vs the letter of the law" phrase originates, albeit in the context of "between love and the law, choose love", not "don't eat fish because I'm not great with words and forgot to mention them".
I'm the stories, Jesus is pretty strongly against not only the legalistic approach but also any religious law beyond "I rock, be cool, follow your heart".
Which adds a bit of irony to all the Christian schisms over minor points of interpretation, including the schisms over this very point I'm making right now.
Also fun: there's a legalistic debate about the merits of legalistic debate versus perceived intent or purpose in the talmudic tradition going back thousands of years.
They believe in whatever suits their interests best.
The loopholes were pulled throughout history so people don't remember the old ways after a couple generation and stop asking why things are changing. If the church kept telling people to fast for 40 days they would have lost a lot more believers way sooner.
The church still tells people to fast for 40 days. I’m in Greece right now visiting my partners family and they’ve just ended their 40 day fast. So not sure where you get that from, unless you’re referring to the Western churches, in which case yes, the fast has been abandoned. But in eastern churches all meat, fish, dairy, egg, alcohol, rich/fatty foods and olive oil (depends on the church that one), is banned and followers are expected to spend those days focusing on their faith, attending church and praying. The very religious restrict themselves to one meal a day after sundown, usually a bean soup of sorts or bread and water (my father in law does this). The faithful are also expected to abstain from things like video games, television etc and engage with family, volunteer and do something for nature and people, but that’s not really followed by many.
You can also cover the meat in pasta dough so god doesn't see it
Similar energy to drinking in a dimly lit bar makes sure Allah doesn't see you drinking so it's fine lol
"Herrgottsbscheisserle"
That's the word you are looking for. We also ate beaver on fridays, they are fish!
Rough translation: "Little god bullshitters"
Maybe "God-foolers", as in: we're hiding the meat so god doesn't know we're still eating it
The Maulbronn monchs once decided that anything living in their pond was fish. Ducks, geese and apparently once a cow drowned and was thus declared a fish.
For lent, beaver counts as fish
Fish: live in water
Beavers: also live in water
checks out
Some monks also drowned their pigs. They lived in the water until they died, so they are fish
Not eating meat on Fridays is an invention of the church. Jesus never said that.
Peter didn't even know what dollars were
Half the fun of the Christianities is endlessly debating what Jesus did or did not say.
Conveniently enough church said beavers are fish so they had meat to eat while others suffer.
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