Alcohol and Gambling are Sins???

[Rainbow Mage]

How are alcohol and gambling sins? Which religions teach this and why? Wouldn't abusing alcohol and excessive gambling are sins make more sense?

 

[Madhuri]

Not according to my understanding because I don't believe in sin. But I do understand that things like alcohol and gambling are bad for you and can lead to negative consequences. Hence why my religion preaches against getting involved with them.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Well some could say that food is bad because abusing food can make one overweight you know. I think moderation is key, not total denial. I don't see why a person who's in perfect control of their drinking and gaming shouldn't enjoy themselves.

 

[lunakilo]

How are alcohol and gambling sins? Which religions teach this and why? Wouldn't abusing alcohol and excessive gambling are sins make more sense?

I think many branches of many religions see it as a sin.

My own grandmother was very religious (protestant/lutheran).
She was born in the beginning of the previous century and spend many friday nights in her youth 'saving' drunks. We are talking about the period around 1930.
Many workers where paid weekly on a friday, and after recieving their pay they would go out and get drunk. Many drank most of their money up, and gambled away most of the rest. they then fell in the gutter (or some other nasty place) and slept it of.
When they finally found their way home to their wife and children there was very little money left.
This kind of behavior ruined many families.

What she usually did was pick people out of the gutter ant take them home and ask the wife if it would be ok to come back the next day and tell them abou God.

My grandmother because of this saw drinking as a sin. She saw how much pain it could cause. She never drank herself.

For some strange reason she never insisted that her children not drink. She is even known to have drunk her 3 sons (grown men at the time) under the table at a family gathering. They where drinking snaps, and she had a small glass normaly used for snaps filled with water, and she keept making a toast

So I guess she wasn't that religious about it

I guess the idea of saying that alcohol and gambling are sins is that it is a simple line to deffine. I mean if you don't drink at all you don't drink to much.
If a little alcohol is allowed, then how much is a little?
Where is the line you should not cross?

 

[Rainbow Mage]

I guess the idea of saying that alcohol and gambling are sins is that it is a simple line to deffine. I mean if you don't drink at all you don't drink to much.
If a little alcohol is allowed, then how much is a little?
Where is the line you should not cross?

I guess that's pretty subjective huh? For me one or two is enough.

 

[Breathe]

Islam, Sikhism, Bahá'i, Rastafari, Jainism, Mormonism, Buddhism (rule five of the Five Noble Precepts) and some sects of Hinduism and even some of Christianity (such as Seventh Day Adventists) discourage or outright prohibit alcohol.

To me though, that's good. I hate alcohol. I find the smell of it disgusting, and it makes me sad to see people drunk, falling over themselves, and so on.


Gambling, I know Muslims are the only ones outright prohibited from gambling. Sikhs are discouraged because it's seen as going against earning an honest living, like begging. Sigalovada Sutra says of the evils of gambling, and the Rig Veda discourages "playing with dice" (10.34.13) which can be seen as gambling.

However, these don't explicitly say don't, only discourage. Everything in moderation.

 

[Onkara]

These are a sin, as can anything be consider a sin if it distracts or removes us spritually from higher achievements. Of course if we reject anything beyond self indulgence then there will never be anything with more value than indulging our desires.

Once we know or accept that there is something greater or higher than our desires, and we knowingly act against that, then we knowingly sin or cause harm to ourselves (and perhaps others).

It is not necessarily a sin in the sense that we will go to hell, but it can imply that we will have to reap what we sow (Karma).

I should add that it is up to the individual what they do, and I try not to judge that or suggest it is a sin. Only that going against our better judgement could be called "sin".

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Odion I assume you know that there are varying interpretations on Buddha's fifth precept when it comes to alcohol. For most people a little alcohol is not enough to cloud the mind. Drinking is common in Buddhist countries for cultural and traditional purposes.

 

[Breathe]

Odion I assume you know that there are varying interpretations on Buddha's fifth precept when it comes to alcohol. For most people a little alcohol is not enough to cloud the mind. Drinking is common in Buddhist countries for cultural and traditional purposes.

Yeah, I know.

Same as the Bible's idea of "drinking is not the sin - drunkenness is".

 

[abdikheromar]

How are alcohol and gambling sins? Which religions teach this and why? Wouldn't abusing alcohol and excessive gambling are sins make more sense?

alcohol is the mother of all evils abstain from it.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

alcohol is the mother of all evils abstain from it.

Yes, but how is it in itself the mother of all evils? Why should I abstain from it entirely?

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

In earlier times, town water was unsafe to drink, wells were often contaminated, even small children drank small beer, it was far safer.
Jesus was rebuked for drinking wine and was compared to John the Baptist who did not.
The Eucharist involves the drinking of wine. it was ordained by Jesus.

There is no doubt excessive alcohol drinking is harmful. Drunkenness harms every one involved including those around them. It is this harm that is sinful, not the alcohol.

Gambling is another question though may be related to debauchery in general.
Again, it is the harm it does that is sinful.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Yes Terry you make a good point about alcohol sometimes being safer then drinking water in ancient times, especially in the Middle East, what we call modern day.

 

[Gaura Priya]

In Vaishnavism (at least the Hare Krishna version), one is to recall the metaphor (well, most Vaishnavas will see this as literally true, but anyways) Mother Earth became the form of a cow, and her legs were broken. Each one represented the symptoms of Satya Yuga (the Age of Truth, a period when the universe is completely Edenic or Elysian): satyam - Truthfulness, shaucham - Cleanliness, tapah - Self-Discipline, and daya - Compassion.

Kali Yuga personified (this very Age of Quarrel and Hypocrisy) would embody the symptoms opposite of these: instead of Truthfulness, one will gamble and cheat; instead of Cleanliness, one will take to intoxication; instead of Self-Discipline, one will take to sexual abandon; and instead of Compassion, one will take to meat-eating.

Thus, Gambling, Meat-Eating, Illicit Sex, and Intoxication are symptoms of this Age, and avoidance brings one to the level of sattva (the mode of goodness). These four activities must be avoided if one desires spiritual life and eventually come to God's Abode.

Also, I have heard in the Manu Smrti that although illicit sex, alcohol and meat-eating are not sins in themselves, there is great merit in their abstinence.

 

[Rakhel]

From what I have seen within Judaism, "everything in moderation" seem to be the stance on alcohol and gambling.

 

[sandandfoam]

People should be allowed drink, take heroin, smoke weed or snort coke if that's what they want to do.

But they all ruin lives and kill people. I think saying that is a sin makes a certain amount of sense.

Gambling also takes a heavy toll. Broken lives and impoverished families bob in the bookies wake. I think people should be free to have a flutter too.

 

[no-body]

People should be allowed drink, take heroin, smoke weed or snort coke if that's what they want to do.

But they all ruin lives and kill people. I think saying that is a sin makes a certain amount of sense.

Gambling also takes a heavy toll. Broken lives and impoverished families bob in the bookies wake. I think people should be free to have a flutter too.

If your definition is something that can ruin lives and kill people, driving should be on that list too.

 

[sandandfoam]

If your definition is something that can ruin lives and kill people, driving should be on that list too.

Wouldn't make a lot of sense to me but hey if it works for you....

 

[lunamoth]

Again, it is the harm it does that is sinful.

I agree, Terry. It is not that gambling or alcohol consumption are themselves sinful, but they often cause harm to one degree or another. It is like the wolf crouching at the door.

 

[ChristineES]

How are alcohol and gambling sins? Which religions teach this and why? Wouldn't abusing alcohol and excessive gambling are sins make more sense?

I see it that way, that the abuse of alcohol and excessive gambling are sins. But there are people who feel if you do something a little, then there is a better chance of abusing it. At least, I think that is what they believe.