Come see the amazing land fish

AssaultedPeanut

During lent and on Friday's, Catholic's aren't supposed to eat red meat/chicken but can eat fish, as you all may be familiar with.

I was reading through a friend's report on Animal Behaviours, she had done hers on the Capybara, and I was amazed to read in the section she had written about 'conservation & threats' that the Catholic Church declared this animal a fish so it can be eaten during lent and on friday's in Central and Southern America.

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/behavior/Spring2002/Willoughby/other.html





*Sorry if this has been talked about already, I searched for Capybara but nothing showed up

Galvasean

The world's largest rodent is a fish?!!?!?

F#cking Catholics.

Daftendirekt

It looks like it tastes awful.

eoin5

Hmmm, sounds fishy....

I'll get my coat...

Black Dog

When is a goose a fish?

When it's a Barnacle goose - yes, Irish people believed this goose lived in a barnacle, being a migratory bird it was absent for long periods of time and this living in a barnacle was what was decided. Of course, this made the goose a fish and so eligible for consumption on Fridays under Catholic regulations.

Previously, when Lent was observed dutifully by Catholics, the regulation was that adults would have one meal and two colations, small meals, generally interpreted as a biscuit and a cup of tea. One clever confectioner in Cork produced a massively big biscuit so that people could have their biscuit and tea and still stay within the regulations. These biscuits were known as "Connie Dodgers" as the bishop in Cork at the time was Cornelius Lucy.

tricky D

From rodent to fish - now that's some real cool evolution in action!!

GLaDOS

It makes sense really

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

pH

I'm a vegetarian. I'm not strict; I eat fish, and duck. Well, they're nearly fish, aren't they? They're semi-submerged a lot of the time, they spend a lot of time in the water, they're virtually fish, really. And pigs, cows, sheep, anything that lives near water, I'm not strict. I'm sort of like a post-modern vegetarian. I eat meat ironically.
Bill Bailey - Part Troll.

Xluna

Great to see religion distorting reality and science again.

Turtwig

Class!!:D

OP, this just made my day.

Galvasean

Plowman wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Starvation? There's no shortage of fish in the Amazon.

PDN

Galvasean wrote: »

Starvation? There's no shortage of fish in the Amazon.

Yes, but they tend to be the kind of fish that eat you, rather than vice versa.

As a non-Catholic I find it strange that the same people who howl criticism at the Catholic Church for not being flexible in regards to condoms in Africa now choose to mock them for showing similar humanitarian flexibility in the past. Damned if they do and damned if they don't, apparently.

Turtwig

PDN wrote: »

Yes, but they tend to be the kind of fish that eat you, rather than vice versa.

As a non-Catholic I find it strange that the same people who howl criticism at the Catholic Church for not being flexible in regards to condoms in Africa now choose to mock them for showing similar humanitarian flexibility in the past. Damned if they do and damned if they don't, apparently.

Given that the accounts of how this "doctrine" arose are hazy, we cannot say it was for humanitarian purposes, especially when the thing was considered a delicacy.

Anyways, it's no longer a humanitarian issue, so has the RCC denounced the idea that it is a fish?

Owen

PDN wrote: »

As a non-Catholic I find it strange that the same people who howl criticism at the Catholic Church for not being flexible in regards to condoms in Africa now choose to mock them for showing similar humanitarian flexibility stupidity in the past. Damned if they do and damned if they don't, apparently.

FTFY

Galvasean

PDN wrote: »

Yes, but they tend to be the kind of fish that eat you, rather than vice versa.

If you are referring to the red bellied piranha, even a fairly large swarm of piranha would shy away from a full grown human, unless he was heavily injured.

PDN wrote:

As a non-Catholic I find it strange that the same people who howl criticism at the Catholic Church for not being flexible in regards to condoms in Africa now choose to mock them for showing similar humanitarian flexibility in the past. Damned if they do and damned if they don't, apparently.

But the kapibara 'flexibility' is not a humanitarian concern. The Amazon is absolutely teeming with fish that can be caught easily.
I will say that the Amazon river is full of animals that can kill you (caimen, anacondas etc.), but the kapibara inhabits the same places as them (heck, they are the anaconda's favoured prey item). Generally speaking if you want to avoid the large predators you should avaoid the kapibaras entirely.
Throwing a few nets out and knabbing the fish would be easier and safer.

Myksyk

PDN wrote: »

As a non-Catholic I find it strange that the same people who howl criticism at the Catholic Church for not being flexible in regards to condoms in Africa now choose to mock them for showing similar humanitarian flexibility in the past. Damned if they do and damned if they don't, apparently.

Nah. Just damned if they do ... insult people's intelligence on a grand scale.

Dades

PDN wrote: »

humanitarian flexibility

ROFL

Allowing indigenous people eat a rodent on Fridays - they're all heart.

robindch

PDN wrote: »

I find it strange that the same people who howl criticism at the Catholic Church for not being flexible in regards to condoms in Africa now choose to mock them for showing similar humanitarian flexibility in the past. Damned if they do and damned if they don't, apparently.

In the case of the catholic church, it was literally damned if you did.

From what's available on the Capybara, it seems that the religious authorities banned, as they did elsewhere, the eating of meat during lent. Then owing to fears of starvation, had to redefine a rodent as a fish, so that their flocks would still be around to celebrate easter.

It's an odd organization which threatens dire consequences for certain acts, then having been caught out, indulged in linguistic ju-jitsu to render themselves blameless.

Now, where did that turn up this week?

Goduznt Xzst

On a related note. Here is a picture of another creature deemed to be a fish by Catholics... and I am not joking. The reasoning is something like, because it eats mainly fish... it is a fish.

robindch

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

Here is a picture of another creature deemed to be a fish by Catholics... and I am not joking. The reasoning is something like, because it eats mainly fish... it is a fish.

I suspect it's got more to do with the fact that the Puffin is just about the only edible thing that grows naturally on the Skelligs.

Galvasean

Do they really need to reclassify things as fish?
Surely God would forgive them for eating some meat during Lent if their lives depended on it.

Turtwig

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

On a related note. Here is a picture of another creature deemed to be a fish by Catholics... and I am not joking. The reasoning is something like, because it eats mainly fish... it is a fish.

That's so cute..
Eating things that cute should be against the law.:)
Also it begs the question why would a God who loves His creation so much leave us it with the requirement to eat several times a day?
For feck sake, like, other animals only need eat once a month!:mad:

PDN

Malty_T wrote: »

That's so cute..
Eating things that cute should be against the law.:)
Also it begs the question why would a God who loves His creation so much leave us it with the requirement to eat several times a day?
For feck sake, like, other animals only need eat once a month!:mad:

Enjoying my food as I do, I think the ability to eat several times a day is a blessing from God.

However, I do wonder that, if God does love His creation so much, why didn't He put all the calories into crap-tasting stuff like broccoli and salad and make Spaghetti alla Carbonara a health food.

Turtwig

PDN wrote: »

Enjoying my food as I do, I think the ability to eat several times a day is a blessing from God.

Ability and necessity are two wholly different things.:)
The necessity to eat often each day could easily have been unnecessary.:o

Morbert

eoin5 wrote: »

Hmmm, sounds fishy....

I'll get my coat...

Don't do stand-up. You'll just flounder.

Taxi!

Morbert

PDN wrote: »

Yes, but they tend to be the kind of fish that eat you, rather than vice versa.

As a non-Catholic I find it strange that the same people who howl criticism at the Catholic Church for not being flexible in regards to condoms in Africa now choose to mock them for showing similar humanitarian flexibility in the past. Damned if they do and damned if they don't, apparently.

Just to be clear. We're not mocking them for showing similar humanitarian flexibility in the past. We're mocking them for calling that oversized guinea pig a fish.

Goduznt Xzst

robindch wrote: »

I suspect it's got more to do with the fact that the Puffin is just about the only edible thing that grows naturally on the Skelligs.

Well obviously. I understand the reasoning behind the classification, but it's the farcical nature behind it that is odd.

I mean how can these people claim that Science and Religion are compatible when they can't get past simple matters such as the type of meat they can eat during one of their observances without falsely reclassifying it. It's an example of how, when push comes to shove, with Catholics everything else will be forced to change before they accept that their understanding of the Bible, or the Bible itself, is wrong.