Verified answer

And Christians view Jesus' slaughter of 2000 pigs as a 'miracle'? This story, in particular, is not told as a parable but as an actual historical event in the Bible.

Why would anyone consider this story as a miracle, when it is nothing more than a repulsive travesty? Let's take for granted the fact that Jesus came across a man who was possessed by demons, or as the text states, an evil spirit and their names are legion. Jesus then casts those demons out.

Here's where any rational, moral person should have a problem. Jesus casts those spirits out in to two THOUSAND pigs. Now, Jesus is a good Jew, so pork is off limits. So, to Jesus, casting demons in to pigs isn't a big deal. Right? I mean, pigs, what good are they? If you're Jewish you can't eat them or use their parts for sausage so...

But really, what does this "miracle" imply? What it says is that a pig farmer and likely his extended family got royally SCREWED by Jesus. One guy was saved from demons...while at least one pig farmer (and his family) were denied his livelyhood and was left in ruin while one person was freed of demons. Is this a fair trade, especially since Jesus could have sent the demons to hell, which is WHY hell was made to begin with, right?

At best, one guy was saved, and a whole family (or families) were ruined because the herd of 2000 pigs that they tended were mindlessly slaughtered by god's idiot kid in order to save one person.

Really? This is a positive story in the Bible? Any rational person would see it as repulsive, immoral, and disgusting.

"Animals get no respect from GOD-fearing people and most people think they are soulless mindless beings." This is a generalization and I am a G-d fearing person who loves animals of any kinds including wasps, mosquitoes, etc. I have a pet and I even knitted her a little blanket. Also, in Hebrew, the text for animals include nefesh or נפש which is a kind of soul. It is not like the human soul which is called neshamah or נשמה. Both Hebrew words mean soul. But animals have also a soul. So for those who state that they don't have souls, refer to the Bible next time in Biblical or ancient Hebrew!

Now, let's see that reference to J'esus. J'esus did not kill the pigs himself. He only let the devils or demons to possess the bodies of the pigs. It is the pigs who got crazy and decided to commit suicide by throwing themselves into the lake. Also don't forget to mention that pigs were ritually unclean in the Mosaic Law and it was forbidden to the Jews to own them. But they were disobedient.

__________________

Here is the passage: "28 When He arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met Him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”

30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”

32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they pleaded with Him to leave their region."

___________________

If J'esus permitted a dmon to possess my cat and she would kill herself even if I love her to bits I would accept it as a dignified human life is more important than my pet.

Well that is to assume foreknowledge of what the demons would do when they went into the pigs. I don't think in his humanity Jesus always acted with foreknowledge, although he had access to wisdom of that sort on specifics via the Holy Spirit. The demons were responsible for the pigs' deaths. But don't be too concerned for the pigs unless you are vegeterian, as you have probably had many burgers and bacon unless a veggie, so such criticism would be hypocritical. Of course there may be unknown factors that just aren't in the account. The pig owner may have been one bad dude, we simply don't know.

The only part of your question I read was the heading....

But I wanted to clarify something- Jesus allowed the evil spirit to enter the pigs minds, in order to free the man. After that, THE PIGS killed themselves because they could not stand the demons.

Jesus did not kill the pigs. Besides which, all non-sentient beings go to heaven. Only humans can truly sin. So the pigs went to heaven where I'm sure they were a lot happier. They didn't have to die one by one, getting hit over the head and then eaten. (I don't care how they were killed, you can be sure it wasn't humane)

"Why did Jesus not only destroy the lives of 2000 innocent animals but also destroy the livelihood of whoever owned those pigs?"

Under Kashrut(Jewish Dietary Laws) the consumption of pork is forbidden.Why would any jew farm pigs in a Jewish control land where it was forbidden,or were they own by Romans for their consumption?

The Cast-Out of Demons Who Entered Swine= No fault can be found with Jesus for allowing the demons to enter the swine, especially since certain unstated factors may very well have been involved, such as whether the owners of the swine were Jews, thus being guilty of disrespect for the Law. It was, of course, not required that Jesus exercise foreknowledge as to what the demons would do once they entered the unclean animals. And the demons may have wanted to take possession of the swine in order to derive therefrom some unnatural sadistic pleasure. Also, it might reasonably be argued that a man is worth more than a herd of swine. (Mt 12:12) Furthermore, all animals actually belong to Jehovah by reason of his Creatorship, and thus Jesus as God’s representative had every right to permit the demons to take possession of the herd of swine. (Ps 50:10; Joh 7:29) The demons’ entering the swine manifested their ouster from the men in a very forceful way, thus also making very apparent to observers the harm that came to creatures of flesh that became demon possessed. It demonstrated for such human observers both Jesus’ power over the demons and demonic power over fleshly creatures. All of this may have suited Jesus’ purpose and may explain why he allowed the unclean spirits to enter the swine.┈┈

┈┈┏━╮╭━┓┈╭━━━━━━━━╮

┈┈┃┏┗┛┓┃╭┫"Read your Bible"

┈┈╰┓▋▋┏╯╯╰━━━━━━━━╯

┈╭━┻╮╲┗━━━━╮╭╮┈

┈┃▎▎┃╲╲╲╲╲╲┣━╯┈

┈╰━┳┻▅╯╲╲╲╲┃┈┈┈

┈┈┈╰━┳┓┏┳┓┏╯┈┈┈

┈┈┈┈┈┗┻┛┗┻┛┈┈┈┈

I would wonder why Jesus did not show more empathy with the pig farmers. I would imagine a loss like that would be devastating to a poor family. Also, It is likely that the farmers were Gentiles and not Jews since various groups lived in this area.

lol this is so freakin funny. This kind of situation reminds me of the scene in the movie 300 where the Spartans shove the Persian down the cliff. They are in war to defend their country, so there is a clear justification to that.

But killing 2000 pigs by casting demons into them and run them down into cliff? A truly maginificient sight to see

this is simply by fact the miracle became a demon-possessed guy became set unfastened. And the demons asked to be sent into the pigs simply by fact the demons did not choose for to pass to Hell. And Jesus allowed it. I heard a shaggy dog tale one time the place a preacher reported it became the biggest deviled pink meat incident in history. John Hagee became the single that used that shaggy dog tale.

Can someone explain why a bunch of Jews had a herd of pigs to begin with? Did they use the skin and throw away the tasty but forbidden pork?