I’m not trying to make trouble, but when I read this all I could think of was those Japanese restaurants where they serve you live fish at the table (actually, I’ve only heard of these from second-hand accounts, but I assume they’re true).
Are these people specially damned, then?
I really can’t imagine eating the limb of any other animal “on the hoof” – even a docile cow would fight back. Unless the original law circumscribes cutting off a limb without kiling the animal, a la Quest for Fire.
There’s no repudiation of God’s existence in Ecclesiastes. The last chapter, in which Sol’s working through his existential crisis, affirms God & the need to turn to Him before life is over.
The consensus among believers is that Eccles was written after Sol had apostasized & then turned back to God.
I think your understanding might be wrong. Non-Jews are expected to keep the 7 Noachide commandments because God commanded them to. If somebody said “I’m going to follow those laws because it’s logical to”, then that’s not considered acceptable. So, believing in God is implicit in following the Noachide commandments.
Well, I would have to guess that yes, by the rules of the Bible, such restaurant customers are quite damned.
Now, I just googled live animal sacrifice, and found that impalement of living animals is still occurs within living memory. (according to The Blue Cross of India) It is not such a stretch to think that perhaps limbs might be removed from living animals, and sacrificed over a sacred flame, by some culture or another.
FWIW, I recall a nature show where a downed but still living large animal (moose?) was eaten by predators (wolves?).