Is drinking alcohol a sin? Personally I agree. Many Christian denominations and other religions also take the view that it is.

As one who has never consumed alcohol, to maintain purity, abstinence is the best way forward. It is a way towards an enriched life and a way to feel that consumption is not the answer to fill matters within one's life.

Many with limited life direction simply are simply consumed with alcohol to fill their inner self, from a profit driven sector, that uses humans to advance their cause.

In most cases it is.

But then, almost everything we do is sinful:

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

[Matthew 7:13-14]

Is drinking alcohol a sin?

I guess that depends on how much you drink and
how you behave after drinking.

As American poet and satirist Ogden Nash stated:

"Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker".

Drinking alcohol is not itself a sin. However it may lead to sin, especially when consumed in large quantities.

Please define SIN for me. With the right definition I might be in the clear.

A Scotsman only told me, putting bad ginger ale into good scotch was a sin. Just as sinful as putting good ginger ale into bad scotch. And you are not going to believe this, but his real name was Ronald McDonald.

I enquired of Ronald as to which scotch he preferred to drank; with his broad Scottish accent he announced "Well, Laddy, at the club I drink 'Bonds 7' myself!"

To which I replied "Ronnie! that's rot gut Aussie whiskey!"

Ronnie replied "True Laddy it is to be sure, to be sure, but it is a good deal cheaper than real scotch, Laddy."

Ronnie was also a rather canny chap.

Been to a family Christmas gathering tonight, where the alcohol flowed freely, so I dare not comment until I sober up.

For it to be a sin you would have to believe in religion.

Philip S, a long time ago I seen an ad on the telly for 'Black Cat' Chocolates, where a rather sexy looking woman proclaimed eating such a delight was "sinful", because you couldn't stop at one. And that was from the mod flogging them, so sin can't be all that bad. Well it was not for a wet behind the ears new boy in town, out to sample the delights the big smoke had to offer, such as I once was.

NathanJ,

You need to be asking yourself what possible motives some charismatic religious dude has when he spruiks a fundamentalist and therefore a deliberately narrowed and selective, reading of the Bible.

Why does he presume to do that and what is in it for him? Lets have no pretense that such men and their followers are not flirting with cultism. Also that such creeps focus on the vulnerable, the health and emotionally compromised. But this rogue will make you feel far worse and that 'sin' stuff is to get a rope on you, to jig you about.

I am led to believe that it is only in comparatively recent times as far as the Bible is concerned that it has been read literally by some. But that destroys its usefulness as a source of stories to moralise over and for some hope in dealing with the existential angst that is the other, inescapable side of being alive and mortal.

Maybe that points to a task for the Xmas period and the New Year, to read some authoritative texts on theology. When did that literal reading start and who was the manipulative SOB?

As for the question, 'Is drinking alcohol a sin', I rather suspect you are not reading the Bible to moralise on your own life but rather to seek to interfere in others' lives, to mind others' backyards. Sadly, Australia is fast becoming a nation of envious, interfering, botherers, of people who mind others' business. -Which is the diametrical opposite of the nation of my youth. Perhaps that is because my parents and grandparents and others of that time had lived through the most awful experiences, were obliged to think for themselves and take action to provide for themselves and their family. They were always thankful and tolerant and looking out for ways to help others in practical ways. Interfering in others' backyards does seem to have emerged as part of a more comfortable, even entitled, lifestyle.

Think for yourself and develop that BS detector.

Of course it is not a sin! It's pretty stupid, though, when you find out what it does to your brain, and the number of cancers it causes. Alcohol is the most dangerous drug there is. Legal. Readily available. Big money for government. There is no point to warning drinkers, though. They don't want to know.

ttbn,

Liver. Many believe it is only excess that damages. Damage -> scarring -> areas of liver that cannot recover and regenerate.

Maybe moderation in all things.

The problem is though that our bodies incl brain cannot possibly change to suit the environment (and inducements) in which we find ourselves. Lots of calorie dense highly processed food and a comfortable lifestyle. Biggest problem is that we are not moving enough. A standing-up walking machine to power the 'puter that is limited to max of 2 hrs a day? ;)

Take heart though that many councils are giving us helpful nudges, option to take steps for instance.

Some of the cancers known to be caused by alcohol:

Liver, mouth, tongue, throat, oesophagus, breast cancer, bowel cancer.

And of course, the immediate effect it has on the brain – just one drink. 'Wet brain' is the eventual result of long term consumption of alcohol. I know of one case where a drinker was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's. He stopped drinking and, voila, no Alzheimer's.

You are drinking ethanol – same stuff that the modern combustion engine can only take 10% of before it seizes up. It tastes bad enough when you open the bottle, but to get the stuff drinkable at all, the suppliers load it with sugar and other additives dangerous to human themselves. If labelling on bottles is ever mandated, many people will suddenly become teetotallers.

Alcohol causes more crime, domestic violence and illnesses than hard, illegal drugs (after taking into account that most people don't take illegal drugs).

We have all seen stories lately about government plans to increase taxes on alcohol because of the ever-increasing problems the stuff is causing. And the trouble is not just among the young and silly. Older people are becoming problem drinkers because of boredom and the fact that the older you get, the lower your tolerance of alcohol. Alcohol is fatal to most of the conditions we get as we age.

Forget 'sin' and religion. Use common sense.

Salud! Skol! Cheers!

Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God now accepts your works.

Do not be too quick in the laying on of hands and thereby share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead, because ofyour stomach and your frequent ailments.The sins of some men are obvious, going ahead of them to judgment; but the sins of others do not surface until later. Parallelism exists between the contaminated effects of asbestos and sin. "Because, metaphorically speaking, both produce Death ..

No.

Malaysia has .08 blood alcohol for sinful driving but Turkey has .05.
Other Islamic roads have sober, pure drivers ( peace be upon them).
US pilots can sin up to .04 but Oz only .02 . This is while flying a craft through the air and sky police need years of training to get the tube through the cockpit window.

<<In most cases it is. But then, almost everything we do is sinful>>

I agree. All actions undertaken by individuals will have some flow on effect that will lead to a connotation, that one will not connect with, see, know about or understand.

<<Drinking alcohol is not itself a sin. However it may lead to sin, especially when consumed in large quantities.>>

When putting forward an argument, there is no 'however'. The use of however, undermines the initial elements of one's argument. For example, it's better to be cautious and simply avoid consuming alcohol and avoid any sins related to its consumption.

<<Please define SIN for me. With the right definition I might be in the clear.>>

Note no one can ever be in the clear, but to provide you with a definition:

Definition of sin

1 a : an offense against religious or moral law
b : an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible it's a sin to waste food
c : an often serious shortcoming : fault
2 a : transgression of the law of God
b : a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sin

<<As for the question, 'Is drinking alcohol a sin', I rather suspect you are not reading the Bible to moralise on your own life but rather to seek to interfere in others' lives, to mind others' backyards.>>

It's important for reflection in life, with a clearer direction. Avoiding sin will not bring change. It will bring side effects, like on this discussion page, (domestic violence from alcohol consumption). So I'm not telling people what to do, simply to realise what sin is regarding alcohol consumption and its implications.

Many do not realise or refuse to accept the concept of sin in principle and reject its pure existence. This is to avoid facing up to a form of what may resemble some form of truth. This element frightens many and is avoided as a result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtJgMViTbNo

NathanJ,
Thanks for taking my comments so well. I was a bit hard.

Is Mise,
An enjoyable film thank you.

Not a sin, but can cause a lot of harm. Based on that alone I understand people abstaining from alcohol. The world and all it's societies have felt the negitive effects of alcohol. That said I would say drinking in excess is the sin.

The word "sin" is derived from archery where it means "missing the mark".

The current and broader use of the word is an analogy whereby all our thoughts and actions are likened to arrows that are directed at God.

Everything and everyone will eventually return to God, so if we are not yet united with God, the only possible reason is that our previous thoughts and actions have all missed the mark.

This analogy suggests that sin is not binary - it does matter not only whether, but also by how much we missed God. Perhaps the game of golf would be a better analogy because the less we missed the mark by, the more likely we won't miss it in the next shot. Eventually the ball will always end up in the hole, the only difference being how many shots it will take.

Drinking alcohol, is in most cases relatively more sinful than other actions, not only due to the selfish indulgence, but specifically because it adversely affects our dexterity in subsequent shots.

It's just occurred to me - didn't Christ turn
water into wine?

Yes, Foxy, and it was a good drop too.

Mary told him to .

Wine is constant proof that God loves us
And loves to see us happy.
(Benjamin Franklin).

Foxy and Issy, in those days it was safer to drink the wine than it was to drink the water. Ancient Egyptians building the pyramids were paid in beer, and many lived to the ripe old age of 35. Drink the water and you had no chance of reaching such old age.

Paul,

How things change!!

When I go to visit friends in Glen Innes and some other towns, I take bottles of boiled water with me, if said friends don't boil or use a top grade filter.
To drink unfiltered/unboiled town water does me no good!!

composition of ball propellant .
40 to 70 percent nitrocellulose
10 to 60 percent nitroglycerin
3 to 7 percent ethyl centralite
1 to 5 percent dibutyl phthalate
1 to 5 percent polyester adipate
1 to 5 percent rosin
1 percent diphenylamine
1 percent ethyl acetate
1 percent potassium nitrate
1 percent potassium sulfate
less than 1 percent graphite
less than 1 percent N-nitrosodiphenylamine.
Causes serious eye irritation. May cause an allergic skin reaction. May cause damage to organs (circulatory system, blood, kidneys, liver) through prolonged or repeated exposure.

Nick,

I don't use ball powder.

Gee Issy, when we were kids in the Orange district, never thought twice about drinking creek water. At the house G'dad had a very deep well with permanent water, to top up the tanks around the old place, which were feed with roof water off the house, me thinks the roof paint contained lead.

Then again Issy, us kids liked to get down on all fours (act like a sheep) and lick the salt blocks in the paddocks, (after the sheep had cleaned them up for us).

Cooked a big Xmas pudding and cake this week. Took me from 5am till noon on Thursday. The pudding is 10 out of 10, but the cake is a little dry could have given it 1/2 hours less.

Just on the subject, for years I used to do Irish Xmas Cakes, for all the family up to 6, start early in the year with a big air tight jar(s), the very large screw top commercial coffee jars work well , fruit, whiskey etc, let it ferment for 6 to 12 months, the longer the better, the worlds best Xmas cake. I can't find the recipe.

"T" and I did 20 puddings one year as one of her "fundraisers" for back home in NZ. Bloody hell that was sinful. All weekend boiling puddings used those baby formula tins, the puddings were popular but bloody hard work.

Peanut oil can be processed to produce glycerol, which can be used to make nitroglycerin, one of the constituents of dynamite. Note however, there are other processes that can be used to make dynamite without using peanuts at all..The Irish TimesSun, Dec 24, 2017.

My guilty pleasure: Lilly Higgins’s peanut butter and sesame cookies.It isn't just turkeys causing chaos. One policyholder reported damage to her kitchen carpets and walls after two Christmas puddings exploded.

Dear Paul,

I remember our visit to Mexico City a few decades
ago. We had a lovely lunch at the Hilton Hotel
and were on our way to a museum when stomach
troubles hit me like a bolt of lightening.
I had been so careful not to drink the water - and
that's why we chose a safe place like the Hilton
for lunch. But I did not think things through. For
dessert I had ordered a fruit salad (forgetting that
the fruit while growing -
would have been watered using their water).

Well, instead of walking up the museum steps, I dashed.
It must of been a usual practice for tourists - because
the security guard at the entrance pointed me in the
right direction to the toilets. So much for safe
hotels. I should have stuck to wine.

Hi Foxy, I think they call that 'Montezuma's Revenge' in Mexico.

Spent the morning at the hospice with our dear friend "K", yes she is still hanging on, 7 weeks now, still fighting, sad as it is, not long to go I think. Spent the afternoon with "T"'s son and daughter-in-law at their place with the mokos (spoilt grandchildren). Daughter did a beautiful baked leg of ham, with pineapple etc, lots of salads and vegies, and a lovely trifle for desert, they went overboard as they tend to do, too much of everything. Back on the subject, the girls got stuck into the wine after lunch, polished off 4 bottles of red, sore heads tomorrow me thinks. But Christmas comes but once a year.

Mea culpa, some red wine with dinner, mea maxiama culpa, I'm now enjoying a large Jameson's.

Jameson's, a nice drop there Issy, with water or ice, neat if you prefer, but never with dry ginger ale, heaven forbid mix it with Coca Cola, now that would be sacrilege, even sinful! Just don't call it "Scotch" another sin.

Someone been spoiling you Issy? Bugger it cant have that, sitting here listening to some Roy Orbison for a change, got a bottle of Johnny Walker Green Label from my son for Xmas, since he's lashed out (not like him) I'll give it a tilt to make sure its not off or something.....its not off.

it is said that Religion is a drug.

Remember this joke?

I once read it is dangerous to drink.
So I stopped reading.

Dear Paul,

We had a lovely Christmas lunch at my daughter-in-law's.
Turkey, ham, roast potatoes, all the usuals plus my
other daughter-in-law brought the desserts - all yum.
Then we visited my mum at her nursing home. It was
very emotional. We stayed until her dinner - and then
we returned home - totally knackered. I slept well
last night

Everything is sin.

The only person that does not sin doesn't drink, smoke, and his kids are adopted.

<<We had a lovely Christmas lunch at my daughter-in-law's. Turkey, ham, roast potatoes, all the usuals plus my other daughter-in-law brought the desserts - all yum....and then we returned home - totally knackered. I slept well last night>>

One could argue, being totally knackered (in whatever form) many just simply slept. It wasn't necessarily enjoyable. It wasn't necessarily an environment where people slept in heavenly peace.

Many see Christmas in such a way (in whatever way one wishes to interpret or accept it), as a frivolous day of fun and nothing else.

As one person has put it, they wished people would connect, be more giving and supportive of others more regularly throughout a whole year.

A lot of alcohol was consumed this year on December 25th around myself (and worldwide) with nothing much else other than food consumed (for those who can have it). Not much else came out of the day, (maybe some cheap gifts), but beyond that I'm not sure. One could argue Christmas Day is now one of the most sinful out of a 365 day year calendar.

Dear Nathan,

I left out the personal bits - like the breaking of
the blessed wafers from our parish priest that we
share around the table - or the Christmas Mass that
we all attended. Also the sharing (and feeding) of
the residents at my mother's dementia wing of
her nursing home. The singing of Christmas carols
and the spreading of Christmas Joy and cheer in
general.

Christmas Eve is sacred as is and Christmas Day.
Both of which mean a great
deal to our family - there are some family traidtions
that I feel sure so many of us observe and will
continue to do so as we pass these down to future
generations. Not only the customs of our European
families and the special food, but also the traditions
of sharing the joy and the meaning of Christmas -
including going to church and looking after the less
fortunate during this special time of the year. The joy
of giving.

NathanJ, I hope you are taking this to its logical conclusion, and you've never let an apple past your lips!

We're coming, we're coming, our brave little band.
On the right side of temperance we now take our stand.
We don't chew tobacco because we do think
That the people who use it are liable to drink!
Away, away with rum, by gum, with rum, by gum, with rum, by gum,
Away, away with rum, by gum, that's the song of the Salvation Army.

We never eat fruitcake because it has rum.
And one little bit makes a man like a bum.
Now can you imagine a sorrier sight
Than a man eating fruitcake until he gets tight?
Away, away with rum, by gum.....

We never eat cookies because they have yeast,
And one little crumb makes a man like a beast.
Now can you imagine a greater disgrace
Than a man in the gutter with crumbs on his face?
Away, away with rum, by gum.....

We never eat apples 'cause they are the food
That Eve gave to Adam to make him feel nude.
Now can you imagine a sorrier clod
Than a man wearing fig leaves and hiding from God?
Away, away with rum, by gum.....

Cigarettes & Whiskey
Adam Brand

Once I was happy and had a good wife
I had enough money to last me my life
Then I met a girl and we went on a spree
She taught me smokin' and drinkin' Whisky

Cigarettes and Whisky and wild wild women
They'll drive you crazy, they'll drive you insane

And now I am feeble broken with age
The lines on my face make a well written page
I'm weavin' this story it's sad and it's true
On women and Whisky and what they can do

Cigarettes and Whisky and wild wild women
They'll drive you crazy, they'll drive you insane

They'll write on the cross at the head of my grave
For women and Whisky here lies a poor slave
Take warning dear friend, for these words are true
Of women and whisky and what they can do

They'll leave you in heartbreak
They'll leave you in pain