In a previous post, I mentioned that the Bible and the Quran agree on the worth of a woman. A woman is worth about half as much as a man.
Well, here is something else they seem to agree on: insects have four legs.
Here's what the Bible says:
Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you. Leviticus 11:22-23
And here's the Quran:
Allah hath created every animal of water. Of them is (a kind) that goeth upon its belly and (a kind) that goeth upon two legs and (a kind) that goeth upon four. Quran 24:45
It's true that neither holy book comes right out and says that all insects have four legs.
But the Bible says that locusts, beetles, and grasshoppers (which are the ones you are allowed to eat) have four legs, while "all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto you." So that would seem to include insects in God's "four legged, flying, creeping things" taxon.
The Quran is a bit less clear, but it too seems to imply that insects have either zero, two or (more likely) four legs.
Isn't it nice that the Bible and Quran agree on something?
13 comments:
I can't think of any flying creature with only 4 legs (except possibly flying squirrels, possums and sugar gliders). Bats and birds have 2, insects have 6 so I guess all things with wings are good nosh
I think you'll find dragons and Pegasus the winged horse (and presumably all winged horses) had 4 legs and could fly. Presumably they've been hunted to extinction by starving blasphemers.
The front two legs are arms.
The front legs of insects are arms? Really?
By that definition, the front legs of land-based mammals, amphibians and reptiles need to be considered arms. Many of them use their front legs as hands, or very much differently than they do their back legs, Some of them can even get on their hind legs. Are we now going to call the front legs of land-based mammals, amphibians and reptiles "arms" and hence classify them as two-legged creatures?
Don't think so.
What about the Dytiscidae or Haliplidae families of beetles, whose back legs have been modified for swimming? Does that mean they have two arms, two legs, and two...paddles?
Er, no.
Insects have six legs. The bible messed up.
Some types of butterflies have only four visible legs.
Yes, Don, the brush-footed butterflies (Nymphalidae) have reduced front legs, so they often look four-legged. I guess they are abominations to God.
I don't see a mention of insects in that verse of the Quran. It's talking about creatures in general. I think the best you could say is that the Quran does not mention animals with six legs.
I've seen arguments both ways on the how-many-legs issue. Of all the idiotic things in the Bible, I'd say this is the one that I can actually accept the other side's argument on. I can understand someone thinking an insect's hind or fore legs were different. The preying mantis looks like it has arms, for example.
If insects were really important and you apparently have nothing better to do, why not invent two distinct terminologies for insect legs?
I personally think the numbering issue makes people forget what should be the main issue: why any animals or insects were an abomination to God. I don't want to open the whole "devolution" can of worms again, but didn't God have better things to do than to tell the his followers which insects they should or shouldn't eat based on how many legs/arms/etc. they have?
This time could have been spent on more important things, like "love thy neighbor as thyself" and all that jazz, or sending a savior to redeem everyone. God's chosen people had to wait thousands of years before God got around to sending his only begotten Son to the slaughter to save their souls. But thank goodness God took time out of His busy schedule to tell them which insects were or weren't displeasing to Him.
Whether the number of legs is right or not, these verse prove the good Lord works in dumb--er, mysterious--ways.
I agree, Jason, that the Quran does not say explicitly that insects have four legs. But it does say that "Allah hath created every animal" and that "of them" are animals with 0, 2, and 4 legs (Quran 24:45). Doesn't that imply that "every animal" has 0, 2, or 4 legs?
There are more known species of insects (> 1 million) than all other animals combined. So most animal species have six legs. If Allah created "every animal", you'd think he would know that, wouldn't you?
Steve, I'm not so sure.
It says Allah created every animal, and then among those animals, some have 0, some have 2, and some have 4 legs. It does not say those three choice are the only choices. It only says those are among the choices for the number of legs. But even if it did mention 6 legged creatures, I'm sure you would have said "how come it doesn't talk about centipedes/millipedes/caterpillars/etc."
I don't think Muhammad had the patience to list EVERY kind of locomotive system, as it's irrelevant to the general thesis of the passage; that Allah creates all things as signs.
Seeing as how one of the chapters is named after spiders, I find it highly unlikely that Muhammad was unaware of animals with more than 4 legs.
But I don't think it's fair to consider this sort of omission as blatant as the Bible saying insects have four legs.
You're right, Jason. Since the Quran says that Allah created "every animal" and then lists their number of legs as 0, 2, and 4, why doesn't it include 6 (for insects), 8 (for arachnids), 10 (decapods), or many (centipedes and millipedes)?
Insects are definitely not an abomination--they are good eating!
Just ask John the Baptist, who lived on locusts and honey.
:)
Clearly, some insects are not for eating, but it's pretty unclear from this which ones.
Insects are not mentioned in the Quranic verse at all. This blog post is distorting the facts completely.
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