grab a marshmellow

the following is an argument regarding the allowablity of eating gelatin derived from a pig, i think its weak: "...it is impossible to differentiate between a chemical derived from an animal source and the same chemical derived from a plant source or formed synthetically. What used to be animal fat, possibly even lard, is now a chemical compound that could have been made in a laboratory or derived from vegetable oil." ...this takes us out of the realm of unlawful things being lawful in times of necessity... with all the advances in science, if we know that the same chemical is available through something halal, why intentionally use it from something haram. or, after finding out that an ingredient came from a WILLFULL use of the haram, why continue to eat it, or make an argument to justify wanting to eat it. (its like placing the dead carrion in that lake yourself, pee in the lake yourself, and then offering me a glass, saying to me "hey bro, it got diluted." well, no thank you! i like my water filtered. some people say that we need to keep things simple, that islam is not about making things complicated. well, i think going to the level of chemical compounds in order to say that derivatives of pig (or alcohol) are ok is also guilty of getting into technicalities. hamza yusuf's tapes of "Food for Thought" are excellent. he describes the eating habits of the prophet and the companions. eat healthy, eat natural, eat pure. if folks want to make lists of things they found to be pork derived, more power to them, do whatever you want in your struggle to attain allah's pleasure, and if others want to ignore those lists, and instead go to the chemical level to justify eating skittles or starburst or marshmellows, i hope its not based on whim, hiding behind a common slogan: "islam says no hardship." peace.