[General_Zhaoyun]

I'm not too sure about christianity or islam, but among all the religions, Buddhism is probably the only religion that condemns drinking and alcohol the most.

Why? Simply b'cos alchohol can corrupt a person's mind so great until he will lose complete rational control over himself. Being unable to subdue his mind, he will then cause harm to others.. such as beating your wife, or result in accident if he is drunk. Alchohol abuse and alcohol addiction can result in lots of social problems.

somechineseperson, on Jun 21 2006, 10:02 PM, said:

Porn is not like drinking alcohol. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with drinking alcohol, as long as you don't get drunk. Porn should be avoided completely.

Actually, I would say alchohol is 'more dangerous' than watching porn. The worst thing that can happen to watching porn is porn addiction, but should you become addicted to alcohol (i.e. alcholic), you will start losing your mind. You won't be able to work properly, you start beating up your wife..and you end up sleeping with other girls other than your wife because your mind will completely lose control. Lastly, alot of accidents were caused by drinking drivers.

Buddhism is very much against drinking, and in fact among the 5 precepts (no lying, no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no alcohol), "drinking" is the most serious 'offense' buddhism teaches its practitioner not to break.

There is a story saying that one is probably able to curb all the bad deeds such as lying, killing, stealing and sexual misconduct, but should one start drinking (and become drunk), he will break all the 5 precepts.. i.e. he will be lying, killing, stealing and committing sexual misconduct.

Being a lay buddhist myself, I don't drink at all. The best way to eliminate these desire and temptation is to purify and subdue your mind.

I'm curious to know if christianity or islam has anything to say about drinking alchohol. Are there any?

[Yun]

Drinking alcohol is strictly forbidden in Islam. In Judaism and Christianity, on the other hand, only moderation and restraint in drinking is required - indeed, in Christianity the drinking of a small cup of wine is a key component of the ritual of the Lord's Supper (also called the Eucharist or Holy Communion, or Mass in the Catholic Church). The exception in ancient Judaism was the Nazirites, men or (more rarely) women who devoted their lives solely to God for at least a period of time and took an oath not to cut their hair or drink wine.

GZ, how about making some comments in this thread http://www.chinahist...showtopic=12145 , from a lay Buddhist point of view?

[urofpersia]

Yes,

Islam is the prime example but I believe there are smaller religions where drinking is prohbited by its folowers as well.

Remember in Islam drinking is prohibited even among its lay adherents not just the clergy.

[Thaibebop]

Buddhism is really against drinking, just warns of it. For drinking will take away ones ability to follow the 8 Fold Path. Right Thought and Right Action are a little hard to focus on when drunk.

[evilhippy]

Hey folks: I have no real reason to be here except that I'm a writer doing a little research and came across this thread and read the original poster's first comment - I just thought you might like to know that Buddhism is really the least vehemently opposed religion to alcohol worldwide today, although throughout history, least of all Chinese history, I admit I cannot say

Islam, Sikhism, and Hinduism are all extremely, one could even say violently opposed to it and regard alcohol as a virtually criminal substance: in Hinduism for example if a Hindu has even one drink, they are supposed to have the image of a liquor bottle branded into their forehead!!
This is for the strictly devout of course, but if you've ever been to India you may know that `extremely devout` is a pretty common and accurate description of about 70% of people. And there are a billion people so that's a lot of devotion!

In Islam the traditional punishment for a single sip of any alcoholic drink was to be whipped, with forty or maybe even eighty lashes. In the past the sentencing is likely to have been more severe in certain cases, although I have no research at the moment to back that up and I am making a supposition on this last point based on what little I know of Sharia law and punishments and Islamic history.

In Sikhism today the offence seems to less specifically punishable, that I can find out about, although in the past when it was first founded (as a breakaway from Hinduism and Islamic influence) the possible punishments seemed to have included death, which seems little severe...
It is still technically completely forbidden.

In Christianity and Judaism restraint is advise to everyone and prohibition (except during Catholic communion) strongly imposed for orthodox followers, and although the harsh punishments are now confined to history (which has a harsh punishment for just about anything if you look around it much) there is still the entrance-qualification-for-heaven problem of not atoning for one's sins, and alcohol consumption is most certainly one of them, for the fundamentalist and orthodox believers. The Torah forbis alcohol and the death penalty it is mentioned in there linked closely to it, according to a Jewish person I have spoken to about it but can give no quotable source, obviously!

Buddhim is the religion I know least about, I place it in my mind as more a system of thought rather than a religion to be honest. In my mind, it seems that the most terrible punishment for drinking alcohol as a Buddhist is your own personal struggle to get back on the path to enlightenment - much the same as all the other religions in essence, but with the need for a Daddy figure with a big stick and a sprinkle of `hocus pocus` to scare you into doing the right thing
In the end I suppose it all come out pretty much equal, philosophically. Buddhism has a more direct way of thinking about the religious concerns, so I suppose it may well seem to be the most severe of you are a student of it.

As long as you know that in other religions, though, it is punishable at least on this Earthly plane variously by whipping, deep and permanent burning of the face, and even death, you may have an appreciation of what you have to deal with and where your experience of religion sits along with others

For the record, if anyone wanted to know, I am an atheist.
-


I was making a point similar to this but in a different context elsewhere, and thought you'd like to know what I had already found out; I hope it is in some way enlightenting

[katess]

Hi,

If Buddhism is against drinking then the people who worship Buddhism should not drink as it is against their guidelines. They should follow it with their heart.


===============================
kate
Alcohol Rehabilitation

[DanLew]

All alcohol should be banned except for non alcoholic wine. In fact non alcoholic wine is always used in religious jewish gatherings.

[changsham]

Banning alcohol doesn't work and in particular where it has deep cultural roots. Societies where it is banned and the bans are most effective you will find harsh draconian punishments and also replaced by other more insidous vices such as heroin addiction. These societies also tend to have draconion punishnments for many other reasons. I don't think I would like to live in that kind of society.

Being raised as a Catholic, alcohol has always been part of the religious scene. Most priests that I have known are regular drinkers. It is usually the more fundalmentalist protestant Christian sects that frown upon the use of alcohol even in moderation.

The church always teaches moderation in the use of alcohol and consuming substances that can cause problems if used in excess. As far as I know there are no historical prohibitions on illicit drugs either. All consumables that can cause harm I guess are covered by the all encompassing mortal sin of Gluttony. That includes eating too much.

I myself enjoy a few beers or wine every day. But I don't beat my wife, sleep with other girls or slack off at work. Most drinkers I know are the same. But there is a significant minority that have a problem with drink. Starts off with an inability to moderate consumption and then leads to addiction. These are the personal problems these people have to deal as individuals and within their own social, health and family network as with any other personal vice or weakness. And we all have them. Only hypocrites say they lead pure lives.

I believe religion should teach, guide and assist us through our spiritual path but not push or hector to us against our will.

This post has been edited by changsham: 27 October 2008 - 10:36 PM

[rookie]

because alcohol cause confussion and intoxicant, in buddhism, ding is very important ,but when you drink alcohol, you lost your control of your mind, you may done silly things, to worsen your ye li, personally i don't like drink alcohol, but i drink sometimes, for that you sometimes cannot refuse it, i think get drunk is a painful thing, you feel uncomfortable

[Thaibebop]

DanLew, on Oct 27 2008, 06:58 AM, said:

All alcohol should be banned except for non alcoholic wine. In fact non alcoholic wine is always used in religious jewish gatherings.

They might, but most in the Jewish community drink kosher wine which is alcoholic.

[李正龍]

talking about 5 percepts..
for instance, when we drink alcohol and get drunk, we can easily broke the other 4 percepts..

in fact, percepts #5, is not only for alcoholism..
but also for drug abuse, including narcotics, psychotropics and other additive drug..



practically, Buddhism didn't put those percepts as restriction like other religions'..
because those percepts reflect the causal effect for our selves..

e.g.
in monotheism: "you forbid to steal, because God restrict that"..
in Buddhism: "you forbid to steal, because you don't want your possession be stolen"..

so, it maybe like this, "alcohol is NOT restricted upon you, unless you got drunk that make you do anything worse"..