There are many disgust stimuli that have little to do with food, morality, or social exclusion. For example, corpses, gore, deformity, and bodily fluids are reliable disgust triggers. Researchers have noted that these stimuli share a common core: each functions as a mortality reminder. We are existentially unsettled by the fact that we have a physical body that bleeds, oozes, and defecates. We are shocked to find that we are vulnerable to injury, illness, and death. Historically speaking, the physical body has always been a source of scandal within the Christian tradition. The physical body is
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