Cheaper to buy the Afghan Opium Crop?

[kandrathe]

Don't be so absurd! The bible tells us foreign substances in our bodies are a sin, thus they must be wiped off the face of this Earth. Yes, that must be why God put them on the Earth in the first place, to teach us gardening and plant removal techniques; it all makes sense now!

BTW, that was sarcasm if you didn't get that, but I do believe regardless of how much people want to differentiate Church and State, it still has a huge impact in the way politicians work.

:rolleyes: Your straw man is not very flame retardant. So, let's not get all bigoted on the Bible.

Purity of body is a Hebrew custom that carried over into the ascetic predilection of early Christians. It happens that the Puritans of the Oliver Cromwell, and Mayflower fame -- (as in Pure) were also enamored with ascetic traditions. Some of that puritanical zeal still exists in America.

There are are least two sides to sin from a religious point of view. One is to protect the "child" to prevent the sin, the other is to strengthen the "child" to resist the sin. The 2nd point of view would look at the first and say that to prevent sin is to prevent choice. An all powerful God could prevent sin, however it would make mankind a slave to righteousness. Most religions in the world have the notions of good and evil, and that the nature of (adult) humanity is prone to wickedness requiring atonement. In thinking about it, Christianity is probably one of the more tolerant of the more popular religions to the use of substances that can be intoxicating.

The people who you see in the 1st camp are either trying to control all human behavior ( a lost cause ), or are more likely trying to protect their *real* children from intoxicating substances and allowing their personal beliefs to distort their views on how all people should behave. These are the hot head loud mouth (ir)religious people who distort everything, can quote scripture out of context like a mimeograph, and give people the impression that all religious people are stupid and nut jobs (e.g. the Westboro idiots).

There is plenty of historical theology on the philosophy of "SIN" and its necessity for free will, and some that come to mind are;

• St. Augustine -- "City of God", "Confessions", "On Christian Doctrine"<>
  
• St. Thomas Aquinus -- Summa Theologiae<>
  [st]They are tedious reading, so embark on them only if you are very interested in understanding the long history of the philosophy of good and evil, and its relationship to free will. What will really blow your mind is that some philosophers argue that humanity may have more freedom than God, because man can choose to sin while God by his very nature cannot. Anyway, the point is that most Christians and Jews believe that each person should encourage "good" choices, but that to remove the choice of "evil" does not remove the desire for the evil thing. So, it is the coveting of evil that pollutes the soul, not merely the evil act of polluting the body.
  
  Back to drug and alcohol abuse... There are references to drinking in the Old Testament (e.g. Proverbs), and some references in the New Testament, that it is at least unwise, and at worst used as a means to coerce someone into doing evil acts. It is the "out of your head crazy" inebriation that is usually proscribed. While, drinking is proscribed entirely in Buddhism, and Islam. Drinking of wine or spirits is listed as one of the "Five Great Sins" in Hindu laws, although it is used ceremonially with marijuana in Tantric traditions. So, sit back and sip some Laudanum and take a puff from that hookah filled with the devil's lettuce. :) Just don't get all crazy and kill anyone now.