fucked up day,holding a fucked up knife, we're all fucked up in this fucked up life
I was thinking about a conversation I had with angela awhile back
She told me smoking was against God’s will.
I was rather fascinated about this proposition, so I asked why.
“because God gave dominion to Man over all things that moveth on the Earth. But when you are addicted to smoking, you are operating against God’s will, since your life is controlled by a plant”
it seems to be an example of very cogent deductive reasoning.
But what if the addiction is question is not to a taboo substance, but, say, to food? We all need to eat, doesn’t that mean our lives are controlled by animals or plants (especially in the case of vegans and the like)
Perhaps an easy answer to raise is pure necessity. Everyone needs to eat to live.
Plus it is not an addiction in the strict sense, it is simply a need.
a few points
1.some smokers may need to smoke to live, indeed there are some who have very severe withdrawal symptoms. But they won’t die from not smoking. Herein lies a possible answer
2.smoking is picked up voluntarily. Eating is something we all biologically need to do from the moment we are born. Even if someone forces you to smoke, you can quit, whereas you can’t simply obviate the need to eat.
But all in all God seems to have created a paradox – we have dominion over everything here. but we depend on them for survival
We appropriate animals and suchlike to feed ourselves. So in a sense, they have dominion over us. If there were no animals nor plants, I doubt we could survive. I wouldn’t want to even if science allowed it
So, a priori, shouldn’t we be able to appropriate tobacco and nicotine and stuff so that we can derive pleasure from smoking it?
Herein lies the third possible answer
3. eating is a necessity, smoking is a pleasure.
but God seems to have forebade certain pleasures, yet allowed others. for example, sex is allowed if you are married. other pleasures include gastronomical cuisine, splendid palaces and so on and so forth.
nothing in the bible explicitly prohibits smoking, so why is it that this pleasure is disallowed?
it harms others? this cannot be correct. if i was a hermit and smoking my life away, im sure God would still grief for me.
it boils down to the fact that in another sense, plants and the suchlike have dominion over us.
I completely agree with angela that smoking is probably going against His Will. My question is why. The 3 possible answers I have provided seem inadequate to me. Indeed, I think the line between smoking, eating and other pleasures is fine indeed.
One of the defining characteristics of contemporary society is the inability to differentiate our needs from our wants.
i would like to develop this argument further, in an attempt to find an answer for myself, but promissory estoppel is calling out to me.
Ta.
---------------------------------------------
p.s. cardinal ratzinger, now more commonly known as pope Benedict the sixteenth, looks abit macabre, no? but its ok. he opposes homosexuality with a passion. hoorah!
She told me smoking was against God’s will.
I was rather fascinated about this proposition, so I asked why.
“because God gave dominion to Man over all things that moveth on the Earth. But when you are addicted to smoking, you are operating against God’s will, since your life is controlled by a plant”
it seems to be an example of very cogent deductive reasoning.
But what if the addiction is question is not to a taboo substance, but, say, to food? We all need to eat, doesn’t that mean our lives are controlled by animals or plants (especially in the case of vegans and the like)
Perhaps an easy answer to raise is pure necessity. Everyone needs to eat to live.
Plus it is not an addiction in the strict sense, it is simply a need.
a few points
1.some smokers may need to smoke to live, indeed there are some who have very severe withdrawal symptoms. But they won’t die from not smoking. Herein lies a possible answer
2.smoking is picked up voluntarily. Eating is something we all biologically need to do from the moment we are born. Even if someone forces you to smoke, you can quit, whereas you can’t simply obviate the need to eat.
But all in all God seems to have created a paradox – we have dominion over everything here. but we depend on them for survival
We appropriate animals and suchlike to feed ourselves. So in a sense, they have dominion over us. If there were no animals nor plants, I doubt we could survive. I wouldn’t want to even if science allowed it
So, a priori, shouldn’t we be able to appropriate tobacco and nicotine and stuff so that we can derive pleasure from smoking it?
Herein lies the third possible answer
3. eating is a necessity, smoking is a pleasure.
but God seems to have forebade certain pleasures, yet allowed others. for example, sex is allowed if you are married. other pleasures include gastronomical cuisine, splendid palaces and so on and so forth.
nothing in the bible explicitly prohibits smoking, so why is it that this pleasure is disallowed?
it harms others? this cannot be correct. if i was a hermit and smoking my life away, im sure God would still grief for me.
it boils down to the fact that in another sense, plants and the suchlike have dominion over us.
I completely agree with angela that smoking is probably going against His Will. My question is why. The 3 possible answers I have provided seem inadequate to me. Indeed, I think the line between smoking, eating and other pleasures is fine indeed.
One of the defining characteristics of contemporary society is the inability to differentiate our needs from our wants.
i would like to develop this argument further, in an attempt to find an answer for myself, but promissory estoppel is calling out to me.
Ta.
---------------------------------------------
p.s. cardinal ratzinger, now more commonly known as pope Benedict the sixteenth, looks abit macabre, no? but its ok. he opposes homosexuality with a passion. hoorah!
4 Comments:
your body is a temple! everything is permissible, but i will not be mastered by anything. the words of apostle paul.
i know in some cultures smoking is merely an ordinary pleasure, but they have the excuse of ignorance. consciously taking things that harm ourselves, propelled by unhealthy craving, is sinful because it does not glorify God.
actually sin is just that - something that doesn't glorify God. not quite a firm answer really, but that's why the word of God is important.
i dont understand.
so is eating, in and of itself, a sin? for sure eating doesnt glorify God.
and some food is unhealthy too. most of the stuff we like is unhealthy. i think i would be justified to say most of us are "mastered" by unhealthy food, and in the case of vegans, they are "mastered" by the plants n other rubbish dey eat.
i juz dun gettit. speak 2 u abt it face 2 face ya =)
eating doesn't glorify God meh. depends on whether u eat to live or u live to eat.
in scripture it often says that we should often pray and fast, and i think its a reflection of the attitude we oughta strive towards as Christians.
Er. So u reckon eating is glorifying God?!
That seems very strange to me indeed.
Does it include all food, or just cheap food.
If cheap, how cheap? Plain bread and water?
Or is it defined by how rich you are?
Is it separated into healthy food and unhealthy food?
Which means to say if I eat an oily greasy chunk of steak and you eat a tofu salad or something, you are glorifying God and I am not?
If we are both glorifying God, then why cant I smoke to glorify God, since eating unhealthy hamburgers do damage to the body too?
The issue is where to draw a line between “living to eat” and “eating to live” to quote you.
Living to eat can be one of man’s greatest pleasures. I find it hard to say it glorifies God though.
Eating to live is really sad, usually only beggars and stuff do that.
I would say most of us are roundabout the middle – so how do we define it?
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