Pork and Religion: To Pig Out or Not?

Pork, that other white meat, has a bad biblical reputation. So are all of us pork-eating heathens on the express elevator to Hades or what?

Pork in the Bible/Torah/Koran has been condemned as unclean. Believers should not eat or even touch the carcass of a pig. Hence, the Target stores employees from Somalia requesting not to have to touch pork at the check out line. I am not going to berate anyone for his or her beliefs. This is a free country. Their qualms, caused me to think, why pork?

Pigs are omnivores meaning that they eat anything! They eat things many find disgusting and others find inconvenient. They eat, they survive and they live like pigs. Why do they live like pigs? Because they are treated as pigs. Pigs are actually clean and intelligent animals. A pig in a pigpen or sty chooses one corner of the pen for potty duties and the rest for the everyday things of pig life. It is up to the pig owner to clean out the poop if the sty is to be less sty-ish.

Pigs don't sweat, so they are into getting wet or hanging in the shade to cool down. Since few pigs can afford a swimming pool, they often have to opt for a mud bath. Elephants enjoy their mud baths if the pool is closed. So why are pigs picked on in religions?

Illness is the reason. Omnivores, especially outcast omnivores, eat things that can cause them to have parasites and other microscopic bugs that cause disease. Bears, horses, cats, dogs, and walruses can all contain parasites in their meat that can cause illness in the consumer that are in the same parasite groups as the pig. Okay cats, dogs and walruses are not omnivores, but they eat their entire prey. Think about it. Horses? That will have to be another discussion. Just about everything all critters that walk, fly or swim can have parasites harmful to humans.