hookahs and religion

[Gryz]

i think that religion is a social construct put in place to regulate the lives of people who have trouble thinking for themselves. I was raised christian but have since thought my way out of it. I respect relgious beliefs, when they do not affect others than the believers, and dont attack peoples beliefs. That said it seems like all religious have a mixed message about carnal sins. on the one hand it is made clear that the body is meaningless and the soul is what matters, thats what continues, dont save money because you cant use it in heaven etc. but at the same time its a "sin" to do most things that people would naturally wish to do and be happy doing. I realize most religious believers have come to terms with these sorts of contradictions, but for me they never made any sense. I can understand how some things like not killing others make sense as "sins," but then there are other things such as wearing cloth made of multiple materials (bible) that make one "unclean."

I am a happy agnostic and i smoke hookah because i like it and am ok with the possible health risks.

I agree with everything he says.

Ditto, agnostic here also....

[cypherkk]

your body is a temple. I understand they burn inscence at temple. Smoke is smoke. again its not about doing it, its about doing too much. Abuse is the sin, if there is one.

well the bible is against you smoking anything that can cause your body harm

your body is a temple

Again, if anything that can harm your body is a sin, stop breathing. Oxygen, in the form of free radicals is actually the most common cause of cancer. Free radicals can come from any, metabolic, chemical, thermal, (not exclusive) reaction involving oxygen.

[rootdown]

God bible said it, not me

[fewwdragon]

I hate to be a broken record here but I very much agree with moderation too much of anything can kill you. I.E. too many bananas (potassium). Hell I have no problem with a crack user who users crack with moderation. The only problem is for some drugs that is harder than other. I am a Wiccan and we don't have sins per say but we do deal with Karma. Our rule says do what you will as long as it harms none. Moderation rarely harms. None the less everyone has the right to choose and just because I believe in moderation I do not have the right to tell another not to over consume. I can feel that they shouldn't but in the end one's temple is his or her temple and nothing can change that.

[rattler]

Everything in moderation. G_d gave us Hookah to enjoy, it is our job to do it in moderation. Don't worry about it and go Hookah in the Sukkah at a Chabad sponsored event. As long as you are smoking with family or friends to relax and socialize with them you are doing a GOOD thing. All too often we forget about our family and friends in a rush to make more money and get more done in a day.

[tingjunkie]

There are many religions/spiritual traditions who use smoke as a sacrement: Rastas, American Indians, Balians, etc.

Just decide what's right for you. Ideas such as right or wrong, sin or virtue, are really human constructs after all. In my opinion, it's often these man-made dichotomies which cause the most problems in our world. If we can avoid these distinctions and just try to accept eachothers beliefs more, it would avoid a lot of hatred and isolation.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but when trying to converse about wether Hookah is a sin or not, perhaps we should first talk about wether there is such a thing as sin or not?

[stevehookah]

I smoke for fun... And sometimes, I smoke for REALLY good fun. heehee...

It does not matter if it's drink/smoke/food/air, I always give thanks.

IMHO, being greatful is required, no matter what/whom you give thanks to.

Most of the time it's my wife though. heehee

[GordonMac]

Sins are what you make them to be. If you belive smoking is a sin then it is for you. As far as religion goes, I am not religious. My advice to everyone is Never beleive what you see or hear because most of the time whenever people tell you things its always in THEIR own benefit. Religion was made to maintain control of the masses.

[sabsz]

I am muslim, but apparently smoking is technically against my religion. Although i dont think it says specifically that SMOKING is a sin. But apparently since your body belongs to god and what not, harming it in anyway is considered not good. But I dont really care that much so i smoke anyways.

[hookahmike]

This one did it for me (I agree, esp. the part about thanking my wife ).

I do it 2-3 times a week for 1 hr max each time.

Don't do it when I'm sick.

Don't smoke anything else other than shisha.

I got introduced to hookah by someone who believed in moderation so...

I smoke for fun... And sometimes, I smoke for REALLY good fun. heehee...

It does not matter if it's drink/smoke/food/air, I always give thanks.

IMHO, being greatful is required, no matter what/whom you give thanks to.

Most of the time it's my wife though. heehee

[The King]

Well, I'm definately not religious, I was raised as a catholic and after a lot of thinking I could just never come to terms with there being a god. But I can't imagine smoking hookah as a sin. Sure it's not good for you, but neither is alcohol right? But as the story goes jesus turned water to wine, and they serve wine at church for catholics. Fasting is extremely hard on the body but can be religious.

just my 2 c's

[OrangeLazarus]

I personally do not believe in the idea of "sin" because i am nonreligious and am pretty much sitting on the fence at to whether god even ixists or not. I think I'm leaning towards more of the impersonal, formless god in a cosmic energy sort of way...

But anyways... Sin really just depends on cultural context - what is a sin in one religion or culture may not be in another. Of course some things are generally accepted as being wrong, such as murder. It really depends on an action's effect on the particular society it was performed on. The things that undermine the society's well being or moral fabric will be considered a sin or at least wrong. Some cultures forbid alcohol, some don't. Some have a certain alcoholic beverage as an inportant religious symbol and depict people drinking it all the time and then go and say drinking is wrong... Hypocritical? yes, but we won't go into that.

As far as hookah smoking goes, its just fine by me so long as it isn't done in excess. And from a historical perspective, tobacco wasn't even known to the Christian world until Europeans explored the new world and found the indinous people of the Carribean islands smoking it. They brought it back to Europe and the rest is... history.

[james]

You're all going to hell imho.

Sorry.


P.S. My wife is LDS. I think I get some kind of free pass or something.

[OrangeLazarus]

You're all going to hell imho.

Sorry.


P.S. My wife is LDS. I think I get some kind of free pass or something.

that isn't a very nice thing to say. oh well...

[james]

I'm not being serious.

[garykainz]

I hesitate to call my self a "christian" in the specific sense of the word. Expand it out to the broadest sense, in that I believe Jesus is the son of God, sent to atone for the sins of the world, then call me a Christian. I just hate to see how much people these days do in the name of Christianity or God. I think that a vast majority of "Christians" and basically, the whole "religion" of Christianity has gotten way off base. That being said, I guess I prefer the term "Christ follower" to "Christian"

Basically echoing a lot of people in the thread, I don't think smoking is a sin (smoking hookah, cigar, cigarette, pipe, etc...) in-and-of-itself. Similar to the way drinking is not a sin in-and-of-itself. The Bible says (loose paraphrase) "Do not drink to drunkenness." (Read: Moderation). So I think the same applies here, sort of. Don't smoke to... smokenness. Haha. Basically, keep yourself in check, don't be addicted to smoking (anything), and you're alright. Honestly though, I don't think God's gonna look at you on Judgement Day and say "Well, let's see, oh no, I see you smoked hookah four times a week for 7 years, sorry, here's your punishment."

[OrangeLazarus]

James -

Sorry, didn't pick up on the sarcasm. Sometimes it doesn't translate well into text.

After being transplanted to the south 6 years ago, I've met a disturbing amount of people who really do believe that sort of thing... It doesn't matter how good of a person you are, if you aren't christian then you're headed straight for hell. Even though I don't believe in heaven or hell it really saddens me that people feel that way...

[dcrooksjr]

I believe that god is a creation of man and that we are not a creation of him. I further believe that the bible is a wonderfully written book of fairytales. I think that religion was designed to help people to cope and to have belief within themselves and to make them feel good and powerful that this almighty being is their to help, heal, protect.

But on the flip side of this I absolutely refuse to believe in some thing that’s suppose to be good when so much death, destruction and torture happens in its name.

I never understood the blood shed over the “holy land” to me its just another piece of land and what happened their can’t be proven to be holy except if you believe, so to me its just a lost cause because religion and history will always conflict with each other because it all stems on what the individual believes to be true.

I respect other people’s beliefs I just ask that they respect mine; something my grand mother has yet to do.

[newsman]

I never understood the blood shed over the "holy land" to me its just another piece of land...

There's nothing "holy" about that land anymore. Not after, as you said, all the blood's that been shed. What gets me is that the christians, jews and muslims all bow to the same god. What the hell are we all fighting for?

[garykainz]

What gets me is that the christians, jews and muslims all bow to the same god. What the hell are we all fighting for?

While Christians and Jews (I don't know enought about Islam to talk about it) do, indeed, believe in the "same God," there is one key difference between the Christian "God" and the Jewish "God"

The Christian God is triune. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, are all one, but separate at the same time. (Think of it this way, water vapor, water, and ice are all H20 right? They're all different (gas, liquid, solid) but the same(H20)

The Jewish God is the "God the Father" part of the Triune God of Christianity, but Judaism does not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, Savior of Humanity.

Sorry if this was a bit off topic, just wanted to clear up that myth that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all worship the same God...

[newsman]

What gets me is that the christians, jews and muslims all bow to the same god. What the hell are we all fighting for?

While Christians and Jews (I don't know enought about Islam to talk about it) do, indeed, believe in the "same God," there is one key difference between the Christian "God" and the Jewish "God"

The Christian God is triune. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, are all one, but separate at the same time. (Think of it this way, water vapor, water, and ice are all H20 right? They're all different (gas, liquid, solid) but the same(H20)

The Jewish God is the "God the Father" part of the Triune God of Christianity, but Judaism does not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, Savior of Humanity.

Sorry if this was a bit off topic, just wanted to clear up that myth that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all worship the same God...

I have to respectfully disagree. Jehovah, Yaweh and Allah are indeed the same. Where the three religions differ is in their interpretation of who the messiah is. Christians believe that Jesus Christ IS the messiah, while the other two groups so not. Muslims acknowledge Christ as a prophet, along with Moses and, of course, Mohammed. Further the three disagree on exactly what constitutes canonical literature, the word of God. The jewish tradition recites the torah, or Old Testament, the christians add the New Testament, and the muslim religion holds that the Quran contains the actual words of god as spoken to Mohammed. It boils down to this: each of the three religions believe that, in spirit at least, each of the others is on the right track. They're just not quite there yet. The underlying message in ALL religions is to act in a compassionate and moral fashion, whether we're talking about Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism or whatever. For any religious group to wage war on another in the name of god (or their interpretaion of him/her/it) is insane and flies in the face of everything that religion teaches. I think that was my point when I made my original statement about the three religions being the same. I just didn't state it clearly enough.

Anyway, back on topic. I don't think god cares one way or another if any of us smoke hookah. He (or she) has way more important stuff to worry about.

[OrangeLazarus]

Anyway, back on topic. I don't think god cares one way or another if any of us smoke hookah. He (or she) has way more important stuff to worry about.

I'd have to agree with that...