As I claim in my last post, entitled “COVID-19: Part 12: ‘Unclean’ Pigs Signify Divine Inspiration,” I believe the Bible’s Mosaic food laws in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 have hygienic value that all people should ponder. Why? I don’t advocate eating completely kosher, as many religious Jews are accustomed to do, which is first based on these laws. But I think the world should recognize that some of the animals in these laws which are therein designated “unclean” suggests that they carry an extraordinary number of pathogens, and perhaps other sources of illnesses, that are detrimental to human health. Modern, medical science has even proved that there is some truth to this. And, if I am right, then these Mosaic food laws signify divine inspiration. How so? Moses and his fellow Hebrews could not possibly have known about the hygienic value of these laws. Moreover, this is just one more way in which the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, has revealed to humans the truth of his existence.
Now we will consider another unclean animal–the bat. So far, it is believed that the current coronavirus pandemic called COVID-19 from bats at a “wet market” in the megacity of Wuhan, China. It is also thought that one or more pathogens were transmitted there from bats to humans, with the possibility that this involved an intermediary animal, perhaps the pangolin. All kinds of wild and exotic animals, both live and their meat, were sold there until the government shut this market down. In the near future, researchers will attempt to further learn for sure how this COVID-19 originated and how it might be prevented in the future. But for now, we will assume it started with bats. Recent research studies have shown that the COVID-19 genome is at least 96% the same as the genome of a coronavirus in bats, making it fairly certain COVID-19 came from bats.
Many humans hunt and eat many species of bats in various regions of the world. Bats also are used for an ingredient in ancient medicinal compounds. Both are popular in China. Botanists divide bats into megabats and microbats. Megabats are most popular, among which are horseshoe bats and fruit bats. So far, it is believed the COVID-19 outbreak at Wuhan, China, originated with a horseshoe bat.
After the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003, which was believed to have been caused by people eating bats, China was criticized for not outlawing the eating of bats. But when COVID-19 was discovered to have originated from bats at the wet market in Wuhan, China responded to it in January, 2020, by banning the eating of bats.
Leviticus 11 states concerning unclean birds, “These you shall regard as detestable among the birds. They shall not be eaten; they are an abomination” (v. 13). Then it lists twenty different species of birds. However, modern science does not categorize the last named creature as a bird, which is “the bat” (v. 19). Deuteronomy 14 is similar. It says, “You may eat any clean birds. But these are the ones that you shall not eat” (vv. 11-12). Then it provides a list as well. Again, the last named in the list is “the bat” (v. 18).
Bats are weird. They have arms with claws, short legs, and strange, thin wings. A bat has two wings attached between the two sides of its body and its two arms. Although bats fly, they are mammals, not birds. In fact, bats are the only mammals that fly.
Bats are everywhere. In fact, bats comprise nearly one-fifth of all mammals on earth. But most people hardly ever see bats, even if they are near. That’s because bats sleep in the daytime and feed in the nighttime. They often live in caves in colonies, sometimes consisting of millions of bats. But bats can hang around in other places, literally.
Bats are more weird because they hang upside down. And they don’t do it to get their back straightened out and thereby avoid the chiropractor! The claws on their feet can grab ahold of a tree limb or the like. A long line of bats can be seen hanging upside down on the same tree limb. Bats sleep by hanging upside down. They avoid predators by sleeping in the daytime, in unsuspecting places, and hunting for food at night.
One reason bats hang upside down is they can’t fly by launching themselves from the ground into the air, like birds do. It’s because their wings don’t have the power to lift their bodies. Instead, while bats are hanging around, they let go of their perch with their claws, their bodies begin to fall, their wings start flapping, and they swoon into bat flight. It all happens in one big swoop.
There are about a thousand different species of bats in the world. Most of them feed on insects, making them insectivores. Their diet consists of mostly moths, mosquitoes, and even beetles. Thus, bats have a good purpose for their existence by preventing the world from being overcome by pesky mosquitoes, moths, and other little creatures.
Some bats feed mostly on fruit and seeds, making them frugivores. A few bats eat small animals, such as frogs and lizards, or fish, birds, and even bats!
Bats are a bit scary for most folks. That is partly because some are vampire bats that suck blood. They drink about two teaspoons of blood per day. They do it by making an incision in the hide of sleeping animals, such as cows, sheep, and horses. But there are only three types of vampire bats, and they all live in Central and South America.
Folklore tells many scary stories about vampire bats that suck blood. This genre pervades the film, comic book, and overall entertainment industry. But humans shouldn’t worry about blood-sucking vampire bats since they don’t like human blood.
Robert Siegel is professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. He says, “In recent decades there has been a great increase in the number of human infections associated with bat viruses.” He says it is unknown why. (The Mercury News, January 29, 2020. Accessed 4/17/2020.) But several factors likely have contributed to it, such as increasing population density leading to human encroachment on bat habitat, deforestation, and perhaps global warming. People eating bats may be another.
Bats carry thousands of pathogens and hundreds of coronaviruses. These viruses can “jump” from bats to humans because we have similar receptors on our cells. Animal viruses attach themselves to our receptors, causing diseases. Yet bats don’t get sick from these viruses. Researchers recently have discovered that bats have a gene mutation in their immune system that prevents them from getting sick from them.
Leviticus 11.19 and Deuteronomy 14.18 deeming “bats” as unclean corresponds to what medical science says about them. Bats are about the most pathogen-laden animals in the world. Bats can carry up to 5,000 different pathogens or more. And so far, medical researchers have studied only about 2,000 of these pathogens in bats.
[See my book at amazon.com, Moses Predicted COVID-19, published June 1, 2020.]
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