Beards and religion

Howie Felterbush said:
Some people have taken calling me "Osama" (although that has tapered off in the last few days. Thanks, Navy Seals!) because it's pretty long and shot with a lot more gray than you'd expect from someone as youthful as I.
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Funny you say that: when I grow a beard, people call me "Castro" or "Fidel," though I have absolutely no resemblance to him whatsoever and never touch a cigar or green cap. So, it sounds as though beards are just as likely to be attributed to "bad guys" as they are to the religious! (Although, for some, those may be the same thing! :D )
 
In Islam there is a hadith that says something like a man should have a beard at least as long as his fist. Not all Muslim groups follow that hadith (most Qataris and other Wahhabists don't) but I think it is one of the reasons why many fundamentalist Muslims from Central Asia have those long beards.

A (clean-shaven) Kuwaiti friend of mine refers to fundamentalist Muslims as "long-beards".
 
For many years I had short hair and a bushy ginger beard. Nobody commented on it because most of them had never known me clean-shaven. The beard was quite high-maintenance - keeping it clean and trimmed was a pain. Also tended to get a lot of split ends for come reason.

Then, one bank holiday, I decided to see what I looked like with a Frank Zappa combo. And I found out. I looked a right pillock. :( So I just kept the 'tache. Now I look like a bespectacled Martin Blunos. :covereyes

One great outcome was that, for the next few days, people at work didn't recognize me - so I could avoid stroppy colleagues quite easily. Useful when you are in software maintenance/support. ;)
 
geni said:
I think you are seeing something that isn't there. Popes for example have had quite a range of facial hair (see pics at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes ) and Joseph smith was clean shaven.

One thing to remeber is that religions tend to be rather conservative with their fashions. While beards have gone in and out of fashion over the centuries at least some religions will have aquired their fashion standards when beards were in.
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True. But some of the religion/beard things are pretty set in stone, aren't they? Like the Amish with the "beard after marriage" thing. I was just curious; why a beard? Is it a wedding ring for your face? Just there to let the ladies know not to hit on you at the barn raising?
 
The odds of a beard thread appearing on the JREF forum are inversely proportional to the square of the weekend proximity.
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I would say beards are extremely important to religion, and I greatly commend those women for their extraordinary commitment in supporting their closeted preacher husbands.
 
I suspect the beards = holiness angle comes from the ancient and medieval world's high price of mirrors. Having no beard, or even worse, a neatly trimmed one, meant that you possessed a mirror and looked into it, and were vain about your appearance. Religions tend to frown on vanity.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I suspect the beards = holiness angle comes from the ancient and medieval world's high price of mirrors. Having no beard, or even worse, a neatly trimmed one, meant that you possessed a mirror and looked into it, and were vain about your appearance. Religions tend to frown on vanity.
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Now we're getting somewhere.

Interesting hypothesis.

*strokes beard in contemplation*
 
Howie Felterbush said:
Now we're getting somewhere.

Interesting hypothesis.

*strokes beard in contemplation*
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The problem with that is that is that alexander of macedonia ordered his troops to be cleanshaven so it couldn't have been that expensive. There are also appear to have been cleanshaven medieval popes
 
geni said:
The problem with that is that is that alexander of macedonia ordered his troops to be cleanshaven so it couldn't have been that expensive. There are also appear to have been cleanshaven medieval popes
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RenaissanceBiker said:
Soldiers are a different thing. Long beards and hair can be grabbed in combat.
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Both good points. Also, as far as the military angle goes, hair would be one more place for lice to grow, and when you have a bunch of dudes all living, sleeping and travelling together, I imagine the lice thing would be a problem.

I'm wondering more about religions that have a belief that a beard is somehow "required" or at least strongly suggested by god or whomever.

I guess, since I don't believe in god, my question is why would someone who's making up rules and attributing them to god decide that a beard is the way to go?
 
Civil servants are not allowed to have a beard in Turkey because of the religious connotations. Facial hair has been a symbol of political ideology for some time in this country.

Beards are only worn by a few Muslims in this country, mostly old guys with knitted skull caps.
 
Beards (real beards that is) cannot be faked. It may be seen as an outward sign of an inward devotion. It could very well be a "wedding ring on your face" as you so amusingly put it -- in this case, married to one's deity.

Of course, a similar thing could be said for circumcision; just that circumcision is normally not something that's easily noticed as a beard is.

So, my guess is that it is a combination of several factors. The longer the beard, the older the person and therefore, by presumption, the wiser. It's also a visible symbol that is not easily removed and is also somewhat inconvenient at times.

And finally, it's something that's exclusively a male thing which conveniently excludes women from certain positions of power and authority.
 
The Norseman said:
Beards (real beards that is) cannot be faked. It may be seen as an outward sign of an inward devotion. It could very well be a "wedding ring on your face" as you so amusingly put it -- in this case, married to one's deity.

Of course, a similar thing could be said for circumcision; just that circumcision is normally not something that's easily noticed as a beard is.

So, my guess is that it is a combination of several factors. The longer the beard, the older the person and therefore, by presumption, the wiser. It's also a visible symbol that is not easily removed and is also somewhat inconvenient at times.

And finally, it's something that's exclusively a male thing which conveniently excludes women from certain positions of power and authority.
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Maybe in your neighborhood.

Just kidding. I think you're probably right in your analysis. Especially about the excluding women thing. I hadn't thought of that.
 
The Norseman said:
Beards (real beards that is) cannot be faked. It may be seen as an outward sign of an inward devotion. It could very well be a "wedding ring on your face" as you so amusingly put it -- in this case, married to one's deity.

Of course, a similar thing could be said for circumcision; just that circumcision is normally not something that's easily noticed as a beard is.

So, my guess is that it is a combination of several factors. The longer the beard, the older the person and therefore, by presumption, the wiser. It's also a visible symbol that is not easily removed and is also somewhat inconvenient at times.

And finally, it's something that's exclusively a male thing which conveniently excludes women from certain positions of power and authority.
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I was going to say that god prefers men who are obviously not women.

In medieval Scandinavian society, beards=manliness: the protagonist of Njal's Saga can't grow a beard, a fact that is constantly brought up by opponents. He is called "Old Beardless," and his sons "Little Dung-Beards."
 
Lucian said:
I was going to say that god prefers men who are obviously not women.

In medieval Scandinavian society, beards=manliness: the protagonist of Njal's Saga can't grow a beard, a fact that is constantly brought up by opponents. He is called "Old Beardless," and his sons "Little Dung-Beards."
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Exactly. Very good point.
 
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