Why do most middle eastern religions hold dogs in contempt?

[Zep]

My dog has no nose.


Oh the poor thing!

 

[gumboot]

I imagine a lot of it has to do with living in a hot desert climate - that is the main reason Muslims and Jews cannot eat pork whereas pork (boar) was considered the very sweetest of meat in the (colder) northern European cultures of the Norse, Gauls, and Asterix cartoons.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Why do most middle eastern religions hold dogs in contempt?

You went to Step Two before you did Steps Zero and One.

Why do people keep doing this? You did not list middle eastern religions, and then show which ones hold dogs in contempt. Thus, you did not answer the basic question upon which your question is founded. Do Most Middle Eastern Religions Hold Dogs In Contempt? You assumed the answer and then asked a related question. Some call this begging the question. If you don't first answer or show that most middle eastern religions hold dogs in contempt, you can't begin to ask why, unless you simply wanted to toss a grenade into the room to see who will jump on it.

In order to refocus the thread, I'll ask the questions more clearly for you.

1. Do most middle eastern religions hold dogs in contempt?

a. If yes, why?

b. If no, why or why not?

c. If no clear answer is findable, where is the nearest pub?​

Did you actually mean to ask:

Why do Muslims hold dogs in contempt? Or, Why do Muslims and Jews hold dogs in contempt? (And so on, 1 -> n, where n = number of middle eastern religions.)

If that is what you meant, why in the name of Mohamed, Ali, and Frazier didn't you just ask it that way?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

For the pedants: My ref to the BTQ fallacy is mostly on the second def, in terms of a dubious premise assumed to be correct.

DR

 

[plumjam]

If you read his autobiography you'll learn that the fact that Islam despises dogs was one of the first things that attracted Cat Stevens.

 

[Foster Zygote]

My dog has no nose.

How does he smell?

 

[Thunder]

Are you saying...Jesus hates puppies?

Who hates puppies????

 

[Christian Dude]

I know some of the real reasons that people in the Middle East hated dogs in the ancient past. In the land of Canaan, or Palestine if you want to use the Roman name, and the surrounding areas, dogs were not domesticated and ran in wild packs hunting and scavenging what they could. They were a danger to people, especially children, in several ways. Obviously one of the dangers was being attacked by a pack. If a person survived the attack, they were not out of the woods because it was quite possible they may have picked up a disease from the dogs.

Another danger dogs posed was to people’s livelihood if they were shepherds or raised livestock. And no, you don’t need a dog to herd sheep. Sheep are very much like dogs in a way, they come or follow when called by their shepherd. And just like dogs, they pretty much ignore other people’s commands who are not their master.

If dogs got into your stuff, clothing, furnishings, food, whatever, they probably left behind some nasty little buggers that would make life miserable.

The Part in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament in Proverbs 26:11 “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” What an amazing illustration of how foolish and vain it is to do the same thing over again when it has caused you injury. The point is; it is like a dog, which ate something that made him sick, going back and eating it all over again after he has already barfed it up. What an amazing and extremely colorful and attention getting way to make the point!

So I wouldn’t say it was a religious thing, it is more a cultural thing that you so see coming out in religious writings of the peoples of that area and time. In the Hebrew Bible and Christian Bible, the Lord definitely uses dogs as a negative example in illustrations ancient Jews could relate to. I don’t think God hates dogs, He created them. I think He hates flys though, Satan created them.

 

[JohnG]

If you read his autobiography you'll learn that the fact that Islam despises dogs was one of the first things that attracted Cat Stevens.

I gotta say, I disagree with you on just about everything you've ever written here, but every once in a while you make me laugh. I salute you, sir.

 

[JohnG]

The bible says things about dogs "a dog always returns to its vomit" and such disgusting and disrespectful things that I have to ask why.

Disgusting? Maybe, but it also happens to be true. I've certainly seen dogs do even worse than that.

 

[gumboot]

I'm sorry, but sheep will not come when called by a Shepherd. Sheep are quite possibly the dumbest animals on the planet. While the Lemming-Cliff dynamic is an urban myth, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if these mindless, smelly white creatures were dumb enough to follow a head sheep to their deaths.

I hate sheep.

 

[Hokulele]

I'm sorry, but sheep will not come when called by a Shepherd. Sheep are quite possibly the dumbest animals on the planet. While the Lemming-Cliff dynamic is an urban myth, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if these mindless, smelly white creatures were dumb enough to follow a head sheep to their deaths.

I hate sheep.

The Kiwi doth protest too much, methinks.

 

[Christian Dude]

I'm sorry, but sheep will not come when called by a Shepherd. Sheep are quite possibly the dumbest animals on the planet. While the Lemming-Cliff dynamic is an urban myth, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if these mindless, smelly white creatures were dumb enough to follow a head sheep to their deaths.

I hate sheep.

Well Middle Eastern sheep come when called. Maybe Kiwi sheep are dizzy and disoriented because they live upside down?

 

[The Atheist]

Sheep are quite possibly the dumbest animals on the planet. While the Lemming-Cliff dynamic is an urban myth, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if these mindless, smelly white creatures were dumb enough to follow a head sheep to their deaths.

I hate sheep.

Join the club!

And there's no "possibly" involved, sheep are the dumbest thing on the planet. Not just dumbest animal, mind, dumber than plants, rocks, dumber than the primordial ooze they ultimately evolved from.

That's why all sheep cockies are somewhat strange.

 

[Jeff Corey]

... I think He hates flys though, Satan created them.

Satan created The Flys, that post grunge '90s group? Or were you referring to Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies? I think the flies were there before, according to the fossile record. Beelzebub just declared himself the head of the flies when he came upon the scene about 350 million year later.