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Why do all the major religions frown upon drugs?

MyDoorsAreOpen

MyDoorsAreOpen

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I can't really name one major world religion with millions of adherents that tends to smile upon the use of psychoactive drugs, no matter the context. With the exception of Judaism, which uses alcohol as a ceremonial entheogen, and the Rastafari, who use cannabis similarly, the whole idea of incorporating a drug into a devout religious life is rather unpopular.

Here are some reasons I've come up with as to why. Which, if any of these, is the best explanation?:

1) Religions tend to be all about cultivating discipline. The presence of drugs makes this more difficult for MOST people, due to mental "clouding".

2) Drugs compete with religion. That is to say, many people who take drugs and have certain experiences and epiphanies that they would interpret as mystical or at least otherworldly. Thus drug users are more likely to see religion as unnecessary and not take part in it. Thus a ban on drugs is a survival adaptation for religions, in order to retain members.

3) The realizations people can have on drugs can cause them to see through the lies and the agendas for power, control, and the submission of others that most religions possess. Thus, as above, it's in religions' own best interest to discourage drugs.

4) Drugs cause people to see the world as a more complex place than religions tend to make it out to be, and thus to ask difficult questions that religions aren't prepared to answer.

Stoned Homer Simpson: "Could God microwave a burrito so hot that even he couldn't hold it?"
Ned Flanders: "Wellsir, as melon scratchers go that's a honeydew!"

5) Unlike the mystical traditions out of which they arose, religions tend to thrive on instilling certainty in people. Drug-takers know that our sober state of mind is only one of many ways consciousness can go, and thus are more likely to see things like morality and value as relative.

6) Drug-induced behaviors blur the lines between a sin and a good deed, an action originating within and without of onesself, and ultimately, the soul and the brain.

7) Perish the thought that drug users may come to find the fantastical visions they have whilst intoxicated more meaningful and relevant to their lives than the myths their religion teaches them, i.e. someone else's fantastical visions from centuries ago.

Feel free to add.
 
The main reason i think is because you're supposed to work hard to get into heaven, not by taking drugs which make you feel like you're in heaven without actually working for it.
 
Good list mdao, its probably some combination of all of those. the cynical side of me would say number 3 is most likely.
 
cP what else do you know about these mushi cults?

the reason I ask is that one of my friends recently left to Sweden to join a mushroom movement. I have since then spoken with him but he doesn't let on that much, although he does seem happy do you have any insight or know of any sites I could visit?
 
Well religion is all about that 'end goal' -be it heaven or otherwise-and drugs let you live there, but only for a short while. Many (maybe most) drug users are in the end worse off than they were at the beginning. Thats not to say the high isnt worth the crash (thats all personal case-by-case desisions), but if there is such a think as heaven, I highly doubt a heroin addiction is going to get you there very fast.

The other reason is as you said about the mystical visions. Revalations (last book of the Holy Bible) reads like it was written by an acid head (and it could very well have been), and since religions second premise is control of the populace, it wouldnt be very smart to have a population of prophits.
 
Actually, most religions are founded on drugs. There's even a hypothesis that Christianity was founded on the Amanita Muscaria mushroom, see The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by John Allegro. I think over time things become taboo, beacuse of kingships(control-issues) and some sacrements naturally lend themselves to secrecy and the mystic. Plant Intoxicants is also a good history of humans and their relationships to intoxicants. It's by Baron Ernst Von Bibra with some commentary by Jonathan Ott. Check it out!
 
-Psychedelics drugs induce extremely intense experiences which can destablize vulnerable people and cause harm. It can be so shocking and unexpected that the practioner isn't able to meaningfully integrate the experience. Religious and mystical traditions tend to be safer. They are usually more gentle and gradual in their approaches to developing and improving the practioner.
To paraphrase Crowley, "Let the wolrd take opium, hashish, and the rest. If the experience reaveals a star, then the practioner shines brighter ever after. But if it reveals a Christian, a thing neither man nor beast, but a muddle of mind, he no longer craves the drugs for their illuminating but for their numbing effects."

-Drug induced realizations, visions, and insights are difficult to interpret and apply to the real world. To me, they are like intense, lucid dreams that might or might not have a deeper meaning. Religion sells itself as providing a very straight-forward pathway to whatever the particular religion offers its followers. In dogmatic religions, everything is either black or white. No gray areas, no room for doubt or confusion, or personal interpretation. Everything is easy to interpret. All you have to do is look it up in the official religious text or ask the priest.
 
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Terence Mckenna - Food of the Gods : The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution

Peter T. Furst - Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens

R. Gordon Wasson - Persephone's Quest : Entheogens and the Origins of Religion

John Marco Allegro - The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East

James Arthur - Mushrooms and Mankind : The Impact of Mushrooms on Human Consciousness and Religion

Jan Irvin & Andrew Rutajit - Astrotheology & Shamanism


ego, power, money...
The Truth Hurt
 
religions & drugs

I think there are a few reasons..

ok for example major religions<<<Christianity, Catholic, Greek orthodox, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hindu, etc. are all related. I believe all religions have evolved and are different interpretations of the same thing. Also the basis behind these teachings will also be perceived differently depending on the individual & there religious education.

One explanation is the; Outcast aspect, that is a way for hierarchy systems to keep people down, to bring shame upon happiness to keep people oppressed. I believe this is more prevalent is western religions because they politicized the teaching agenda for their own benefit for power and control.

On a more positive note; another aspect is that jah/allah/god/mother earth father sky/ whatever that greater power is, wants you to grow, to be pure, healthy & happy.

That means all synthetic, self-harm and demoralizing acts can damage your mind soul & your soul doesnt want that, deep down yo know when you are hurting yourself with drugs or when you are having fun & feel good abotut it.

Traditionally in past religions as others have stated, natural drugs from the earth, have been used to reach a state of bliss in witch to be more connected to that eternal spirit. But those drugs are only an aid on the path to spirituality.

I feel if a religion frowns upon me, rather than being understanding of the endemic degenerative problems in the world, then that is not righteous to me, I don’t think that’s what mother nature & father sky / the universal divinity / wants for me.

So I understand the teaching of the preservation of the soul and purity. I don’t believe that I will go to hell, but I think it’s a natural law that everything gets balanced out in the end, & each person is to live according to their own beliefs.
 
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factor_in_reality said:
Christianity, Catholic, Greek orthodox, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hindu, etc. are all related. I believe all religions have evolved and are different interpretations of the same thing.
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people please actually research something before you open your mouths...Buddhism and Christianity are differnt interpretations of the same thing REALLY???
 
theworks said:
people please actually research something before you open your mouths...Buddhism and Christianity are differnt interpretations of the same thing REALLY???
Click to expand...

absolutely.
 
dont know a whole lot but would have to disagree with you there...
i dont think buddhism has much to do with interpreting the same thing christianity does..
 
I don't think it has anything to do with some religious "agenda" to keep humanity down; i think MDAO's #1 comes closest. Most of the major religions have an ideal of bodily restraint, because they see the body as only a vehicle for the soul; they would be no less condemnatory of excessive alcohol than they would of hallucinogens, or speed, what have you. In short, they may see drug use as focusing on the lowest rung of the ladder, rather than the way to the top.

For my part, I don't see drug use as offering any more valid insight into the world than religion, just because it's more direct and experientially intense--especially if the world is at its core atheistic. In short, both are subjective value judgments, IMO.
 
I'm assuming most of us here do not think of organized religion as a good thing. One could say that there is somewhat of a contradiction with religious values being against the free willingness of the conscious, and religions being founded by minds under the influence of psychoactive drugs.
 
What I see popping up time and again is the strange contradiction between mysticism and religion -- how the former begat (no Bible joke intended) the latter, but also destroys it. Mysticism is such a lonely, uncertain path, where most of what we take for granted as human beings can unravel. It's kind of ironic that mystics are often unable to reap the benefits that the faithful do: comfort, certainty, grounding, and community bonding, while the faithful are likewise unable to reap the main benefit mystics do: direct, fresh, unfiltered, unadulturated, uninterpreted contact with a higher power.

It seems kind of like the difference between cooking for yourself versus buying fast food every day. Either option will carry both benefits and serious drawbacks that the other doesn't carry, plus, the latter couldn't be possible if no one had ever done the former. I think religion is more about putting yourself at the mercy of other people and other people's interpretation of the ultimate truth, than at the mercy of any cosmic forces.

Socko, what you mentioned reminds me of Jewish mystical societies. They are terribly exclusive, on the grounds that the truths they unearth are ones that the vast majority of people cannot handle and would probably cause them to lose their grip on reality. Jewish mysticism does not involve drugs nowadays, as far as I know.

But Socko, I think I disagree with the general gist of your post. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be implying that religious visions carry inherent meaning while drug-induced ones are more hit-or-miss. There was an experiment done once where LSD reports and the reports of people in India who'd achieved psychedelic states through serious, concentrated yoga practice were shuffled. Participants' ability to tell which was which resembled random guessing, even when the participants were experienced with psychedelics.

specialrelativity, I think you're somewhat right -- I think all religions were founded on visions that individuals had. But I don't think drugs necessarily needed to be involved. There are other, more physical and less chemical, ways to tweak the human consciousness, like I just mentioned. I think visions that do not come from drugs might be more palatable to more people, since they are tied to physical body processes more obviously and develop more slowly, and thus make more rational "sense" and are somewhat easier to integrate into everyday life.

Belisarius, sounds like mysticism isn't your cup o' joe. But for what it's worth, I have yet to hear from anyone who's had any kind of otherworldly experience who still have a concept of God even remotely similar to what western religions spell out in their literature. I have a feeling the anthropomorphic God of the bible is the shallow end of the swimming pool, an aid to those whose understanding of the world is simple and human-centered.
 
My opinion is based mostly on some bizzare salvia, LSD, and Jimson weed experiences. I realize that many people are able to have meaningful spiritual experiences from them, but I haven't, as far as I can tell. I've only learned how important it is to have a sitter and to be careful. On the other hand, for me, mushrooms and marijuana experiences are more straightforward and easier to learn from, but even these are still difficult.
That's why I tend to agree with the cautions given by the ancient Jewish mystics. I remember reading that they cautioned against getting too deep into Kabbalistic studies, but reading between the lines, I can see how the warnings could be meant for entheogens as well.
 
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