# Symbolic Cannibalism **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 30, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674 "2013-10-30T19:46:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kurtisokc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kurtisokc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurtisokc)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/41 "2013-11-08T02:46:51Z")
> [@mozchron](#): > > Um, there is nothing symbolic about the Eucharist. According to the miracle of Transubstantiation, the wafer is transformed into the actual body of Christ. > > In other words, its ACTUAL cannibalism (at least to believing Catholics). > > Isn’t religion fun 🙂 That’s one of the reasons I’m glad to be Protestant. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/42 "2013-11-08T03:05:09Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > I thought cannibalism was defined as eating human flesh. Do you have another definition in mind? Cannibalism is eating your own species. So if a human being eats human flesh, it’s cannibalistic. If a dingo eats human flesh, it’s not. Black widow spiders are said to be cannibalistic because they eat their mates during or after sex. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/43 "2013-11-08T04:25:11Z")
> [@truthseeker3](#): > > Counterfeiting is making fake money; minting is making real money that has the power to buy real stuff. Similarly, cannibalism is eating dead flesh; the eucharist is eating living flesh that has the power to impart a share in the life of god. No, the eucharist is a cracker that someone has spoken magic words over and other people believe to be the flesh of a god that a bunch of other people don’t believe in. I don’t personally have a problem with folks doing that, but I do have an issue with Catholics pretending it isn’t symbolic cannibalism when it so obviously is. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/44 "2013-11-08T04:31:47Z")
I note that there’s a term for eating gods; [theophagy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophagy). As for whether or not it’s symbolic _cannibalism_, that depends on whether or not Jesus counts as human. ---
**Author:** ![kurtisokc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kurtisokc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurtisokc)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/45 "2013-11-09T00:36:24Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > No, the eucharist is a cracker that someone has spoken magic words over and other people believe to be the flesh of a god that a bunch of other people don’t believe in. > > I don’t personally have a problem with folks doing that, but I do have an issue with Catholics pretending it isn’t symbolic cannibalism when it so obviously is. A bit of a nit-pick, but this has already been covered in this thread: Protestants believe that the eucharist is symbolic canabalism. According to Catholic doctrine, it is actual canabalism. Of course, just because Catholics believe this doesn’t mean that they are right and that the eucharist is not simply a cracker. ---
**Author:** ![truthseeker3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@truthseeker3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthseeker3)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/46 "2013-11-09T05:19:06Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > Cannibalism is eating the flesh of your own species and has nothing to do with whether it is alive or dead. I mean dead in the sense of soul-less. Ritual cannibalism (as opposed to the pragmatic cannibalism in the Andes incident) supposes the existence of some kind of life-force that can be transferred from person to person via the eating of flesh. Christians hold that the soul is indivisible; thus your flesh is not alive in this sense, even if Hannibal Lector has only just bitten it off. Theologians often assert the notion that pagan practices reflect a yearning for a reality that’s just out of reach. In this case, ritual cannibalism is the soul’s imperfect attempt to re-create the transfer of a share in god’s life through matter that can be eaten. But no one who has had the real thing can abide the imitation; thus, equating the Eucharist to cannibalism is going to get the same reaction as if you tell your friend his fancy imported havarti is just like American “cheese.” ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/47 "2013-11-09T10:35:58Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Cannibalism is eating your own species. So if a human being eats human flesh, it’s cannibalistic. If a dingo eats human flesh, it’s not. > > Black widow spiders are said to be cannibalistic because they eat their mates during or after sex. Clearly I was giving a definition of cannibalism _for humans_. Human cannibalism is a human eating human flesh. Jesus was human. The eucharist, according to doctrine, involves eating Jesus’s flesh. Hence the eucharist, according to doctrine, involves humans eating human flesh. Hence the eucharist, according to doctrine, involves cannibalism. That Jesus is God according to doctrine is irrelevant, since the definition of cannibalism is “eating human flesh,” not “eating the flesh of an entity that is human and nothing else.” ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/48 "2013-11-09T11:41:15Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Clearly I was giving a definition of cannibalism _for humans_. It wasn’t clear to me. ---
**Author:** ![truthseeker3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@truthseeker3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthseeker3)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674/49 "2013-11-09T12:42:02Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > And any comparison of counterfeiting to cannibalism is just a poor analogy in my opinion. Well, I’ll drop the analogy then - it’s not really mine anyway. (You are no doubt shocked to discover that a person who chooses a login name that’s been taken twice already is not terribly creative.) Personally, I’m willing to accept either “bread is not flesh” or “god is not human” or maybe some combination thereof. (Humans have two dimensions, matter and spirit - and in neither dimension is the definition of cannibalism satisfied.) But you seem to be more interested in the “Why is my wife mad at me? I just asked a simple question” angle, and I’ve tried to shed some light on that. Thanks for taking my remarks seriously. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/symbolic-cannibalism/672674.md?page=2)