For ancient Greek eating human flesh was taboo. That also was a way to prevent prion diseases.
It's possible at some time that behavior gave society a bit of edge, but it then kept passing it over just as a form of tradition.
E.g. fasting is another practice that has hidden health benefits.
This whole problem can be solved by a change in attitude and wearing condoms.
> if you had any evidence at all that the reason for Ramadan (or a similar fasting ceremony
> But there's a ton of social mores that aren't required anymoreSome still worship some guy that died 2021+ years ago (or so) . We made our calendar around his whole life. With holy days and all.
And another set of humans worship another person that lived around 1500 years ago
> This whole problem can be solved by a change in attitude and wearing condoms.
There are already microbes that breakdown plastic and virus are adept at horizontal gene transfer (between different species or genus altogether).
I'm not going to argue that (though I do question the overall efficacy of fasting aside from caloric restriction, but regardless, that's beside the point), but I am arguing that not what the intent was originally for - it's a side effect that can help, but wasn't considered.
> To a degree yes. Until the virus evolves to just break down parts of plastic. Given enough time virus will do whatever it needs to survive.
Sure, but until that time condoms work just fine. I feel like that's a huge leap for what an STI can do. Otherwise we also have to worry it could go airborne and spread without doing anything given that bacteria (which is what Syphilis is) can do that as well but that seems equally unlikely. In fact it has had a reason to develop airborne transmission capabilities for millennia longer than it has had reason to fight latex.
> I am arguing that not what the intent was originally for - it's a side effect that can help, but wasn't considered.
Group A eats some fallen foes, and by chance contracts prion disease and dies out.
Group B isn't going to think yeah, this was caused by microscopic particles. They are going to think - See. I was right. Gods are angry at you. Then they will persist to replicate the behavior for centuries after it could make any impact.
> I feel like that's a huge leap for what an STI can do.
It's better ofc, to eradicate it now and not worry about it, but the thing is, promiscuous behavior will always be a breeding lab for these kind of pathogens. Even if none exist, some might evolve into it. If there is a niche to be exploited, some pathogen will evolve to exploit it.
And regarding adaptation you're playing a game of "what if" that's not terribly helpful, like my example of it going airborne. Then it doesn't matter what happens. Yeast could mutate and literally turn us into brain munching zombies, but I don't know why that matters.
Depends on context. If for example eating shellfish/pork caused harm once or twice, people could extrapolate it's evil or something. People are good at finding pattern where none exist.
> Yeast could mutate and literally turn us into brain munching zombies
Riiight. But if it did, it would wipe itself out too fast. Like we already have Zombie like disease. It's called rabies.
> And regarding adaptation you're playing a game of "what if"
It's less of what if, and more of a game, let's make our next STD <insert measure> resistant. Whether it's antibiotics or viral or admittedly far fetched example of latex evasion. As long as there is fertile soil for STD there will be STDs.