Is (any) alcohol drinking a sin?

ed-swckf

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I don't drink alcohol ever myself and i don't follow a particular faith or believe in a god. I would however have troubles with many structured faiths as i have anti alcohol beliefs, in other words i would believe it a sin to drink and i don't often see that ideal supported in religion.
 

Andrew Green

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Definately not a sin.

However trying to control a group of people by telling them they will go to hell for violating arbitrary rules about what people should or should not put into there own bodies when it effects no one else, that is a sin. Stone them all.

~ Book of Andrew 12:4
 

Drac

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The best German beers are from monasteries. 1000 years of brewing experience without commercial pressure :drinkbeer

I don't know where it came from but it was EXCELLENT and POTENT..
 

Drac

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Talk about your dbl edged sword..Bound for hell because you drank and woke up feeling like you are already there because of it....
 

MA-Caver

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Originally Posted by Andrew Green
Definately not a sin.
It's a good thing otherwise a whole boatload of folks are bound for hell after last night...

Drac, while I get the gist of your tongue in cheek comment here, I'd like to expound upon the idea.

If it were a sin, it is still not necessarily mean that they will be bound to pay the gate-keeper the entry fee to enter hell. There is a thing called repentance and that is (one of the things) that "saves" us from Sin... that and the atonement.
Repentance simply means turning a 180 on the sin itself. Or even more simply put... ask forgiveness (from the Lord) and then stop drinking. However one may want to expound upon that idea is up to them, i.e. help others to stop drinking and so on.

So there's a way out of it. But it by no means says it's okay to do it over and over again... get drunk-- oh I'm sorry, then a month later get drunk again-- oh I'm sorry... a month later get drunk again -- oh I'm sorry... nope doesn't work that way. Repentance is what Jesus meant when he told the prositute "go and sin no more."
 

exile

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Talk about your dbl edged sword..Bound for hell because you drank and woke up feeling like you are already there because of it....

Years ago I knew a doctor, a cardiologist, who told me that there was emerging information that red wine in reasonable moderation (not austere moderation!) was terrific for your heart, that the massive Framingham Heart Study, probably the broadest and deepest longitudinal medical study of all time, was pointing clearly in this direction, and many other things which were music to mine ears. Since then everything he's been talking about have become well known, and amply confirmed; even somewhat killjoy outfits like the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (I love them and the stuff in their newsletter Nutrition Action is great, it's just that they can be a little puritanical in tone, sometimes) are grudgingly admitting that the health benefits are real and not just the product of a well-organized marketing campain run jointly by Napa Valley wineries and the government of France. Now I'm beginning to hear similar things about beer...

My understanding of the health story on beer includes the interesting claim that during the Middle Ages, ales were the chief sources of a number of trace minerals and nutrients for the vast majority of the population who were not particularly well off, and was the one sure way to make water drinkable (`fresh' water was contaminated by so many nasty microbes that you were much more likely to die of cholera by drinking water than die of liver trouble from drinking beer). And one of the longest-lived populations in the world is on Sardinia—they have a record number of centenarians, apparently—which also has a thriving local wine economy...

So on due consideration, Drac, I do believe I'll have another—you joining me? My treat...
 

exile

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Not just wine, moderate drinking in general has health benefits: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_consumption_and_health

Not great ones to the point that anyone recommends everyone drinks, but there are benefits to having a beer or two a day :D

Right, this is what I've been hearing more and more about beer, recently.

I recall a play, The Barretts of Wimple Street, about the conflicts between Elizabeth Barrett, who later married the poet Robert Browning, and her family. She was very sickly as a young woman and her doctor insisted that, for her health (even survival), she drink every day a tankard of porter, which some of us would love to have prescribed for us, but which she absolutely hated—couldn't stand the stuff. The interesting point, though, was that porter did at the time have a reputation as being a `strengthener', supporting frail constitutions such as hers. It was recommended as part of therapy for `consumption', aka tuberculosis, and other wasting conditions, and so on. Some of the recent medical evidence seems to be catching up with these much older views of my favorite class of grain products.... :)
 

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I would strongly recommend the delightful and informative A History of the World in Six Glasses. It traces the effect, history and significance of beer, wine, coffee, tea, spirits and soda. Great stuff, informative and engaging.

One of the reasons European monasteries produce such wonderful beer is Lent. Back in the day the monks were not allowed solid food other than the Host during the forty days of Lent. They were allowed to drink, so soups were popular, and beer became the substitute for bread. It had lots of calories and was rich in B vitamins.
 

exile

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I would strongly recommend the delightful and informative A History of the World in Six Glasses. It traces the effect, history and significance of beer, wine, coffee, tea, spirits and soda. Great stuff, informative and engaging.

Thanks much for the reference, Tellner!

One of the reasons European monasteries produce such wonderful beer is Lent. Back in the day the monks were not allowed solid food other than the Host during the forty days of Lent. They were allowed to drink, so soups were popular, and beer became the substitute for bread. It had lots of calories and was rich in B vitamins.

Yes, I'd heard something similar about the B-vitamin complexes in beer; you lose the effects significantly when the yeasts, which produce these complexes, are filtered out, so real/bottle-fermented ales are the best from that point of view (and just about any other you can think of, IMHO). And there are also apparently certain complex compounds in beer, along the same general lines as resveritrol in wine, which have important health benefits. There's even an interesting story in the online National Geographic about the role of beer as a vector supplying naturally-occcuring antibotic compounds to ancient Nubians; check out

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0516_050516_ancientbeer.html
 

exile

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For example, I have found that after too many beers, I tend to covet my neighbour's horse.

This is bad, very bad. You're probably drinking lager. Switch to ale and see if it makes a difference—I'm sure it will!
 

ed-swckf

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Drac, while I get the gist of your tongue in cheek comment here, I'd like to expound upon the idea.

If it were a sin, it is still not necessarily mean that they will be bound to pay the gate-keeper the entry fee to enter hell. There is a thing called repentance and that is (one of the things) that "saves" us from Sin... that and the atonement.
Repentance simply means turning a 180 on the sin itself. Or even more simply put... ask forgiveness (from the Lord) and then stop drinking. However one may want to expound upon that idea is up to them, i.e. help others to stop drinking and so on.

So there's a way out of it. But it by no means says it's okay to do it over and over again... get drunk-- oh I'm sorry, then a month later get drunk again-- oh I'm sorry... a month later get drunk again -- oh I'm sorry... nope doesn't work that way. Repentance is what Jesus meant when he told the prositute "go and sin no more."

But they are bound for hell until they repent and make the 180 you mention. There is of course no certainty of staying on course for hell but the comment simply says that there will be lots of people who drink the new year in so if its a sin then they are hellbound. What interests me is how casual can people be with repentance? I mean do they just have to make an acknowledgement of it being wrong, should they try their hardest to stem from sinful behaviour. Is a sin still forgiven and repentance granted if you aren't 100% commited to avoiding sin?
 

ed-swckf

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This is bad, very bad. You're probably drinking lager. Switch to ale and see if it makes a difference—I'm sure it will!

Does it make the horse look more like your neighbours wife with the ale?
 

Drac

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Either way you might get a free ride..
 
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Carol

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Do me a favor Drac. Don't ever say "baaaaaaad" in the same thread that references "sheep" mmmkay? :D :D
 

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