Why alcohol is still the most dangerous drug

My best shot at absolutism about not drinking:

• Will never get drunk (and drunkenness is sin!)
• Will never cause another to stumble (about this - there are other opportunities!)
• Will never be impaired while driving (flying (check out the legroom!), boating, farm machinery, fireworks, mowing the law, et cetera)
• While there are seemingly some health benefits to moderate drinking … there are dangers too!
• It’s expensive (contrast to tap water … chilled and with ice) [anecdote: relative spending $ 40 per week on liquor]
• It’s empty calories: glass of wine, shot of whiskey, glass of beer
• Will never embarrass oneself by saying / doing something stupid because of alcohol-related loss of inhibitions

I personally would never recommend another person drink! (And I think that it is entirely unwise for preachers to do so).

That being said:

• … I don’t believe the Scriptures prohibit drinking in moderation.
• I know many people who drink in moderation, never get drunk, never drive impaired

I am not a not a prohibitionist.

[TylerR]

Bert,

No doubt some folks use alcohol as a whipping boy. But, I don’t believe Aaron is doing that, here. If you abuse alcohol, you will die younger and harm others, too. It’s not partisan to say that, is it?

Well, what would we infer from the relative incidence of articles about alcohol vs. those about the hazards of our food? Sorry, but statistically speaking, wine is a whipping boy right here that far deadlier hazards in life are not. Moreover, there are a number of times where basic errors are made (as in the article linked here) that ought to get them put in the circular file by any honest researcher. And yes, this extends to people at the WHO who also fail to differentiate between the effects of heavy drinking/drunkenness and moderate drinking. People naturally tend to be less critical about sources that say things to which they’re personally amenable, no?

Interesting that this article by Kevin Bauder came up on my Facebook feed today http://religiousaffections.org/articles/in-the-nick-of-time/food-pharis…. Interesting and timely thoughts on gluttony given the direction of this forum discussion.

[Kirk Mellen]

Interesting that this article by Kevin Bauder came up on my Facebook feed today http://religiousaffections.org/articles/in-the-nick-of-time/food-pharise… Interesting and timely thoughts on gluttony given the direction of this forum discussion.

Very surprised J.B. ignored nicotine in his analysis. Still, I very much appreciate his attention to the dangers of alcohol.

This is one of the latest indicators of alcohol being on the rise again. It may not be the best article out there, but women drinking wine on a daily basis is a dangerous trend.

https://www.realsimple.com/health/women-relationship-with-alcohol

Not everyone who wants to point out the abuse of God’s temple by covering it with fat and clogging its arteries with cholesterol is doing so to defend their alcohol consumption or draw attention away from the dangers of alcohol. Personally I’m concerned as I see gifted servants of God who are unknowingly limiting their years of service by being over weight or obese. Culture’s obsession with “body image” has nothing to do with it. I’ve had a number of doctors tell me that one of the surest ways to lose a patient is to tell them politely and directly that they need to lose weight or risk severe consequences. I’ve also learned it’s a way for me to lose friends.

[JNoël]

Very surprised J.B. ignored nicotine in his analysis. Still, I very much appreciate his attention to the dangers of alcohol.

This is one of the latest indicators of alcohol being on the rise again. It may not be the best article out there, but women drinking wine on a daily basis is a dangerous trend.

https://www.realsimple.com/health/women-relationship-with-alcohol

Note that the article’s prime point is that due to various societal factors (e.g. stress), more women are drinking heavily. That’s the big takeaway that is the huge risk. Women in the Mediterranean countries often drink wine daily without harm; almost all of your problems occur when people drink a LOT.

Bert,

Speaking of the WHO, they do not differentiate between moderate drinking and excess. The quote says that any amount is a carcinogen.

https://centralseminary.edu/food-pharisees/

Eg grilled meat

https://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/a19519698/does-grilling-really-cau…

Artificial sweeteners

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-care-news/articles/2018-04-23/study-…

Sugar

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/01/the-startling-link-b…

fruit and vegetables

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/17/medicalscience.research

Coffee

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/30/california-judge-rules-that-coffee-requ…

Men: sex is good for you (tell your wives!)

https://www.livescience.com/48858-link-between-sex-and-prostate-cancer…

The sun

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/sun-uv-a…

Swimming

https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/swimming/swimmers/rwi.html

Doing nothing

https://academic.oup.com/jnci/article/106/7/dju206/1010488

Riding a bike

https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/05/12/how-safe-is-bike-c…

I’m suffering from the post-lunch slump. I think I’ll go make some coffee right now …

But remember the stories about the guy who had too much at the Golden Corral and came home and beat his wife and kids? Yeah, me neither. Or the one time that guy super-sized the Big Mac meal at McDonald’s and swerved all over the road until he plowed into grandma taking the neighborhood kids to church? Yeah, once again, me neither.

You know why? Because the affects aren’t the same and the warnings of Scripture aren’t the same. Food and alcohol are simply not the same. Therefore, we should not equate them unless we want to abandon the foundation of Scripture. The problem is that people are wont to equate things Scripture doesn’t equate. It is true that all sin is sin, but not all sin is the same (either in seriousness or in temporal effect). And in some cases, people have judged things to be sin that aren’t sin at all.

The fact that some can’t have a discussion about alcohol without raising food is a sad testament to our understanding of sin in Scripture and the warnings that Scripture gives. If we are going to embrace the “first fundamental” as some like to call it, then we should actually embrace its teachings and perhaps consider the proportionality of dangers and warnings.

[TylerR]

I’m suffering from the post-lunch slump. I think I’ll go make some coffee right now …

Not going to give up grilled meat or coffee

Did you hear about the overweight preacher who had a heart attack and had to leave the ministry early with no disability income and a family to support and a church that didn’t know what to do with a pastor who couldn’t do his job anymore? I did.

Did you hear about the overweight preacher who had to have the church build a ramp into the building because he couldn’t climb the stairs? I did.

Did you hear about the overweight preacher who dropped dead at 41, leaving his wife with no income and two small children? I did.

I’ll concede that obesity may not be as “bad” a sin as drunkenness, but it is killing more of us than booze.

BTW, everyone who ever ate broccoli eventually died.

[mmartin]

Bert,

Speaking of the WHO, they do not differentiate between moderate drinking and excess. The quote says that any amount is a carcinogen.

Agreed that this is exactly what they said. They are in that regard in conflict with the data, however, which state rather clearly that the relative risk is in the neighborhood of 1.04, which is statistically speaking basically undetectable. Really, along the same lines of other U.N. agencies overstating the case for global warming, and in evaluating data like these, you’ve got to remember that nobody gets his doctorate or tenure by retaining the null hypothesis—to get promoted, you’ve got to “prove” something new. Guess what side of the scales the finger is on?