Drugs and Religion

[Gloone]

Why do some religions think it is wrong to drink and do drugs?
A lot of religious people seem to be really uptight about certain things and drinking / drug use is one of them. Why is that?

 

[Orbital]

Because the body that they are given at birth is God's gift to them, and no matter how imperfect it is, it is not to be changed because then you are changing God's work.

Also because a lot of drugs change your perception and how you view everything.

These are theologically grounded, not biologically.

I always find it hilarious when a theist (mostly Muslims in my case) tries to justify the banning of a drug by using medical facts. Never works out great (for them).

 

[ninerbuff]

Why do some religions think it is wrong to drink and do drugs?
A lot of religious people seem to be really uptight about certain things and drinking / drug use is one of them. Why is that?

Because when on drugs and alcohol, they can't be controlled by religion.

 

[outhouse]

Why do some religions think it is wrong to drink and do drugs?
A lot of religious people seem to be really uptight about certain things and drinking / drug use is one of them. Why is that?

because when these type people hit rock bottom after throwing there lives in the trash.

its the religious people who help pick up this human mess off the ground and help to guide them in living a good life. very simular to how prison inmates magically find god after they have been busted.

many have been there done that, and see the road these people have just turned on to

 

[Thesavorofpan]

Why do some religions think it is wrong to drink and do drugs?
A lot of religious people seem to be really uptight about certain things and drinking / drug use is one of them. Why is that?

Well I consider drinking to be a lesser evil that is nessacary.
While addicting drugs not only destroys the body, but also said community where its spreads. It's just not a good thing to have in my opinion.

 

[Madhuri]

Why do some religions think it is wrong to drink and do drugs?
A lot of religious people seem to be really uptight about certain things and drinking / drug use is one of them. Why is that?

I'll give you a Hindu reasoning.

Anything that causes attachment, dependency to material life is considered detrimental to spiritual progress. As well as that, everything is influenced by one of the three modes of nature: goodness, passion and ignorance. When we put something into our body, the prominent mode of that thing influences our own body and consciousness. So things like drugs and alcohol are in the mode of ignorance, and will cause the consciousness of the individual to sway that way. An example of someone deeply in the state of ignorance would be a lazy person, depressed, very messy, dirty, spends little time in pursuit of knowledge etc.

So drugs and alcohol are definitely discouraged.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Gloon,

Drugs and Religion

As you have rightly pointed it is Not true for all enlightened people to speak of drugs only in a negative manner.
Most Meditators in India have been rather used to taking marijuana while meditating not only as it helps in reaching that state of no-mind but also to be insensitive to cold and other harsh weathers and living conditions they may be in.
It so happens that most meditators took to the Himalayas which is ice capped and normally meditators lived in caves without warm clothes or heating systems besides lack of proper food or water etc. and drugs help to keep the focus going even under such physical conditions.

Since normal humans in society have material ambitions and such drugs take away such focus from materialistic goals; drugs have been banned by most.

Every thing has two sides and both are right.
Only by being balanced [transcended] one can see both sides of the coin as equally true.

Love & rgds

 

[arthra]

Why do some religions think it is wrong to drink and do drugs?
A lot of religious people seem to be really uptight about certain things and drinking / drug use is one of them. Why is that?

In the case of alcohol and otehr drugs, I think it is basically the intoxication that results.. but there are also clearly addictive issues as well and affects to health.

Among Baha'is use of alcohol is forbidden by the revealed text..

Beware lest ye exchange the Wine of God for your own
wine, for it will stupefy your minds, and turn your faces away
from the Countenance of God, the All-Glorious, the Peerless,
the Inaccessible. Approach it not, for it hath been forbidden unto you by the behest of God, the Exalted, the Almighty.

Abdu'l-Bahá explains that the Aqdas prohibits "both light
and strong drinks", and He states that the reason for
prohibiting the use of alcoholic drinks is because "alcohol
leadeth the mind astray and causeth the weakening of the body".

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 227)

We don't even use it to cook as in some recipes..

Alcohol can be prescribed by a physician..or it could be used as say fuel or for cleansing perhaps.

Regarding other drugs:

170. the use of opium ... any substance that induceth
sluggishness and torpor # 155

This prohibition of the use of opium is reiterated by
Bahá'u'lláh in the final paragraph of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. In
this connection, Shoghi Effendi stated that one of the
requirements for "a chaste and holy life" is "total abstinence
... from opium, and from similar habit-forming drugs".
Heroin, hashish and other derivatives of cannabis such as
marijuana, as well as hallucinogenic agents such as LSD,
peyote and similar substances, are regarded as falling under
this prohibition.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 238)

If you tally the costs of alcohol and drug use in the Unietd States alone it is astronomical:

Alcohol and drug abuse cost society an estimated $86.1 billion from direct costs and losses in productivity related to crime, social welfare expenditures, motor vehicle crashes, and fire destruction. Drug abuse is estimated to have cost $57.5 billion of these non-health-related costs, and alcohol abuse is estimated to have cost another $28.7 billion

Source:

Economic Costs - Chapter 6

 

[Renji]

Not at all times applicable. Drugs, as in medications isn't 'wrong', but illegal drugs and other substance abuse, that's what the church is against with....

 

[Renji]

Because when on drugs and alcohol, they can't be controlled by religion.

And where did you ever get this idea?

In the RC church, the 'aim' is not to 'control' drugs and alcohol, but to set standards about the use of these stuff based on the principles of 'morality'.

 

[ellenjanuary]

In general, religion seeks to control the moral standard. Stastical analysis clearly indicates that the majority cannot handle drug use without becoming a problem. So, absurdity. Not only are drugs naturally derived, but any effect caused by a drug is an enhancement of the brain's natural process. Saying "god does not allow drugs" is complete hypocrisy. Furthermore, it will come to be understood that the "altered state of consciousness" is one where the mind can perform entirely different orders of data processing.

 

[Noaidi]

As you have rightly pointed it is Not true for all enlightened people to speak of drugs only in a negative manner.
Most Meditators in India have been rather used to taking marijuana while meditating not only as it helps in reaching that state of no-mind but also to be insensitive to cold and other harsh weathers and living conditions they may be in.
It so happens that most meditators took to the Himalayas which is ice capped and normally meditators lived in caves without warm clothes or heating systems besides lack of proper food or water etc. and drugs help to keep the focus going even under such physical conditions.

Since normal humans in society have material ambitions and such drugs take away such focus from materialistic goals; drugs have been banned by most.

Every thing has two sides and both are right.
Only by being balanced [transcended] one can see both sides of the coin as equally true.

Love & rgds

Good point. Many shamanic cultures use substances (mainly plant-based, but also animal) to achieve an altered state of consciousness for healing and meditation. The use of certain substances in that context is totally different from getting wasted on booze and coke on a Friday night for fun.
We should be wary of seeing the label "drugs" and assuming that they're all for recreation only.

 

[waitasec]

Well I consider drinking to be a lesser evil that is nessacary.

have you ever seen 2 people fight when they are high on weed?

 

[The Neo Nerd]

have you ever seen 2 people fight when they are high on weed?

Maybe over the last double choc tim tam. That's about it.

-Q

 

[ninerbuff]

And where did you ever get this idea?

In the RC church, the 'aim' is not to 'control' drugs and alcohol, but to set standards about the use of these stuff based on the principles of 'morality'.

You can't control people who are drunk and high.

 

[outhouse]

In general, religion seeks to control the moral standard. Stastical analysis clearly indicates that the majority cannot handle drug use without becoming a problem. So, absurdity. Not only are drugs naturally derived, but any effect caused by a drug is an enhancement of the brain's natural process. Saying "god does not allow drugs" is complete hypocrisy. Furthermore, it will come to be understood that the is one where the mind can perform entirely different orders of data processing.

sometimes we wonder and try to tie in what ancient man ment and how we modern humans can even begin to relate.

Take jesus he loved to hallucinate and made no issues stateing such. "altered state of consciousness" and jesus go hand in hand. he didnt go out in the desert and fast for 40 days after baptism because he was happy inhis current state of mind. he had to go out and hallucinate to help create his new religion so people 2000 years later could try and interpet his trip.

 

[sandandfoam]

Why do some religions think it is wrong to drink and do drugs?
A lot of religious people seem to be really uptight about certain things and drinking / drug use is one of them. Why is that?

A lot of religious people seem quite keen on drinking / drug use. Why do you focus on the ones who are uptight?

 

[Renji]

You can't control people who are drunk and high.

What the church wants is to set 'moral standards', not to actually 'control' them.:sarcastic

 

[Walkntune]

Why do some religions think it is wrong to drink and do drugs?
A lot of religious people seem to be really uptight about certain things and drinking / drug use is one of them. Why is that?

Because religions are about directing someone to face the truth about themselves and who they are, not run from it , suppress it or alter it.

 

[Gloone]

Thanks for the replies. I have read all of them but I will not reply to every single one. It is interesting to see how other people view this topic.