I don't know if this really fits in "Dumb Beliefs" or just outdated dogma, but I'm curious about others' thoughts on this one. For centuries, the Catholic Church forbade the eating of meat on Fridays. For the last few decades, that has changed to only being done during Lent. As someone who was raised Protestant by a mom with an extreme bias against the Catholic Church, I've always thought the idea pretty silly. I mean, to each their own, but especially after I became an Atheist, I feel like the forcing of one to adhere to something as arbitrary as eating something or not eating something on a particular day seems, well, dumb. In a lot of Xtian denominations, there are certain rules you have to, or are supposed to follow - Methodists aren't supposed to get drunk or gamble, the meat thing with Catholics (along with a shit load of other rules they have), Mormons are supposed to go door-to-door on my day off and annoy the fuck out of me, etc. I've had Catholic friends who get indignant about it, and tell me it's a sign of faith to follow those rules, rather than being "forced" to follow them.
So, is it dumb, outdated, silly, or am I letting my rational thinking get in the way?