Is it sinful to smoke?

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What do you all think? Is it sinful to smoke cigarettes, or cigars, or pipes, or huka? I think the Church does say that we can smoke tobacco, as long as we use prudence and temperance, but could somebody find the source? Thanks everyone!
 
CCC 2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine…

CCC 2291 The *use of drugs *inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their us, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offence…

So probably having the occasional cigar or cigarette is not a sin but being a “smoker” and thus addicted to nicotine is a sin. I really want to quit, though.😊🤷
 
I remember in elementary school, the Sisters would tell us not to smoke because our bodies are ‘temples of the Holy Ghost’! A good argument.

However, I went to a Catholic girls’ college and it had a smoking lounge! This was in the late 50s, early 60s. I was told it was to deter smokers from doing so in their dorm rooms; however, the perils of smoking were not known at that time. And alas! It was there I started smoking.

(After my sophomore year, my Father said to me, "I think the only thing you’re learning in college is how to smoke and play bridge)!

Our parish Priest smokes and, he, too, is very sorry he ever started.

None of this gives you an answer but should let you know others are wrestling with the same question - I’m doubting it would be a sin.
 
I think people generally tone down the rhetoric on smoking and drinking because they’re so wide spread- but in the first case you are putting some of the most potent deadly chemicals in to your body for no benefit what so ever and in the latter you are shutting down your ability to reason for “fun.”
I see no reason why drinking or smoking in moderation is any more tolerable than taking heroine in moderation.
 
I think people generally tone down the rhetoric on smoking and drinking because they’re so wide spread- but in the first case you are putting some of the most potent deadly chemicals in to your body for no benefit what so ever and in the latter you are shutting down your ability to reason for “fun.”
I see no reason why drinking or smoking in moderation is any more tolerable than taking heroine in moderation.
Eating sugary food and fast food is probably just as bad if not worse than having a cigar every once in a while. I smoke a cigar with friends every few months or so. We sit and talk about life, religion and theology while enjoying (yes it is enjoyable) a cigar. Enjoyment is a reason. We are meant to enjoy creation. While the chemicals are potentially harmful…so is getting in your car to drive to the beach…so is swimming…the point is that a lot of good things are potential harmful. That’s what moderation and temperance are all about. Drinking can be done in moderation. I can have a beer or two and not impair my ability to reason. In fact I have found that it can help my ability to articulate an argument because it relaxes me a little.

Getting drunk would impair your reason, but getting drunk is not drinking in moderation…so I fail to see your point.

You can’t do heroin in moderation. The point of those drugs is to put you in an altered state of mind where reality and reason are bent. It’s not like you can take a little bit of heroin and just relax after a meal…no one does that.
 
Eating sugary food and fast food is probably just as bad if not worse than having a cigar every once in a while. I smoke a cigar with friends every few months or so. We sit and talk about life, religion and theology while enjoying (yes it is enjoyable) a cigar. Enjoyment is a reason. We are meant to enjoy creation. While the chemicals are potentially harmful…so is getting in your car to drive to the beach…so is swimming…the point is that a lot of good things are potential harmful. That’s what moderation and temperance are all about. Drinking can be done in moderation. I can have a beer or two and not impair my ability to reason. In fact I have found that it can help my ability to articulate an argument because it relaxes me a little.

Getting drunk would impair your reason, but getting drunk is not drinking in moderation…so I fail to see your point.

You can’t do heroin in moderation. The point of those drugs is to put you in an altered state of mind where reality and reason are bent. It’s not like you can take a little bit of heroin and just relax after a meal…no one does that.
Sugar is good for you in some amounts. Carbs are good for you in some amounts. The 4000 chemical compounds in a cigarette serve no positive purpose in non-zero amounts.

There is a guaranteed negative effect from these poisons, although it may not be immediately noticeable. And even at .03 (less than one standard drink for an individual is not relatively large) impairs the ability to reason, not even taking into account other effects.

And says who? The purpose of alcohol is to be consumed en masse, the purpose of cigarettes is to form an addiction- same with heroine.
 
What do you all think? Is it sinful to smoke cigarettes, or cigars, or pipes, or huka? I think the Church does say that we can smoke tobacco, as long as we use prudence and temperance, but could somebody find the source? Thanks everyone!
Smoking is addictive, and indulging in any addiction probably gets in the way (at least somewhat) of one’s relationship with God (after all, Jesus said “Whoever wishes to follow me must first deny himself…”). I doubt it’s a mortal sin, but it’s probably venial- considering all we know about the health risks it poses- at least before it becomes an addiction (and afterwards, it’s still an imperfection- and possibly a sin if you’re exposing others to it).
 
"The 4000 chemical compounds in a cigarette serve no positive purpose in non-zero amounts."

Actually, nicotine aids memory and concentration. We knew that even before we knew what nicotine is, i.e., there was the correlation between smoking and increased memory and concentration before some knew of nicotine. Owing to the memory and concentration thing, nicotine will soon be used in the treatment of dementia. You otherwise eat nicotine when you eat a tomato, potato, eggplant, and when you have a tea [so tobacco does not stand alone as the harbinger of nicotine].
 
I think people generally tone down the rhetoric on smoking and drinking because they’re so wide spread- but in the first case you are putting some of the most potent deadly chemicals in to your body for no benefit what so ever and in the latter you are shutting down your ability to reason for “fun.”
I see no reason why drinking or smoking in moderation is any more tolerable than taking heroine in moderation.
That depends whether or not you are smoking pure tobacco or not. Most commercial companies use only 50% pure tobacco which even that has some chemicals the farmers sometimes spray. Cheap cigars follow in a similar path, but fortunetly not many folks inhale the smoke from those. A really good cigar though will be of pure tobacco and not additives. Still they were not made to inhale .Farmers also cure the tobacco in piles via fermenting which add less carcinogens than flue curing as you would with cigarette tobacco.
Sugar is good for you in some amounts. Carbs are good for you in some amounts. The 4000 chemical compounds in a cigarette serve no positive purpose in non-zero amounts.

There is a guaranteed negative effect from these poisons, although it may not be immediately noticeable. And even at .03 (less than one standard drink for an individual is not relatively large) impairs the ability to reason, not even taking into account other effects.

And says who? The purpose of alcohol is to be consumed en masse, the purpose of cigarettes is to form an addiction- same with heroine.
Your logic is a bit vague, are you trying to say all forms of smoking are just as bad as heroine or just cigs. Actually the cigarette was created by poor people in Europe to enjoy like cigars. Since they couldn’t afford cigars, they take the butts left on the ground and grind them up. After that they would roll in a paper or tobacco leaf. Over the years people started using more burley with cigarettes and it became more tolerable to inhale. This over all helped developing nations formed. It is in the 20th century that companies evolved more to addicting materials other than tobacco and even so tried to make the tobacco more addictives.
 
CCC 2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine…

CCC 2291 The *use of drugs *inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their us, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offence…

So probably having the occasional cigar or cigarette is not a sin but being a “smoker” and thus addicted to nicotine is a sin. I really want to quit, though.😊🤷
Get off the sugar first. Other than going cold turkey, the best thing to do is to minimize your sugar intake both orally and in the smoke. Companies use a lot of sugar in their cigs, which aid greatly to the addiction which is why the patches suck. I recommend smoking something like American Spirits which contains very little additives and sugar. Once you’re off the sugar try then to quit again.
 
Get off the sugar first. Other than going cold turkey, the best thing to do is to minimize your sugar intake both orally and in the smoke. Companies use a lot of sugar in their cigs, which aid greatly to the addiction which is why the patches suck. I recommend smoking something like American Spirits which contains very little additives and sugar. Once you’re off the sugar try then to quit again.
Thanks for the good advice.🙂
 
Sugar is good for you in some amounts. Carbs are good for you in some amounts. The 4000 chemical compounds in a cigarette serve no positive purpose in non-zero amounts.

There is a guaranteed negative effect from these poisons, although it may not be immediately noticeable. And even at .03 (less than one standard drink for an individual is not relatively large) impairs the ability to reason, not even taking into account other effects.

And says who? The purpose of alcohol is to be consumed en masse, the purpose of cigarettes is to form an addiction- same with heroine.
So sugar is not addictive and most people take it in moderation? Most people in america do not consume more calories than they need? Is that what you are saying?

Efficiency is not the greatest virtue…in fact it is not a virtue at all. It is acceptable to enjoy something. That is why we have desert after a meal. It doesn’t have to have a health benefit for it to be ok for us to consume it. If we are entirely efficient (consuming things ONLY for their worth, not because we enjoy them) we are acting like machines not people.

Alcohol might be marketed to be consumed en masse. But is entirely possible to consume it in a reasonable manner. Ditto with tobacco.

Heroin (not a female hero) is a different sort of substance. Do you think it is possible to consume it in moderation? Do you know of anyone who can?

As far as impairing reason goes. Have you ever had one drink? It doesn’t do much to you (and I’m a tiny girl). Nervousness, sleepiness and simple distractions do more to impair your reason. As long as it doesn’t make itself a near occasion of sin (impair you to the point where you would make decisions that you normally would never do) it is not wrong. If it were wrong to impair your reason at all, then getting sleepy would be wrong.
 
As a smoker, even though I have struggled with cigarettes for the past 8 years, I have a hard time going from ‘habit one should avoid’ to ‘sin’, even if it’s a venial sin. Yes, there is a need for moderation, but I don’t think that claiming your addicted makes it sinful. It’s like gluttony–you can have a meal that leaves you stuffed, but that’s not necessarily gluttony.

I’ve tried several cold turkey methods to quit–have had 4 serious attempts at quitting, and I’m gearing up to start #5 in the next couple of weeks. Anyone have any advice/tricks? And it’s not the physical addiction that gets me, it’s the mental addiction that I have the hardest time breaking past
 
It’s like gluttony–you can have a meal that leaves you stuffed, but that’s not necessarily gluttony.
One meal. If every single meal and snack you eat leaves you stuffed, that would be gluttony. Smokers, however, don’t smoke “a” cigarette. We somke enough that it’s damaging to our health. I think all addictions are inately sinful. When an addict (myself included) is craving _______ (whatever) that is the thing we want most in the world at that moment. I’d rather feel that way about God alone and for sure not something that destroys my body, which I should be taking good care of because it’s a gift from God.
 
I think anytime you are addicted to anything, whether it is a cigarette or just a particular candy bar you are putting yourself in bondage to that thing. While smoking may not be bad per say it might become something that you turn to in a time of stress instead of praying to God. In other words, if you are using something as a coping strategy something is amiss. We all know how the devil likes to hone in on people in any type of bondage.
 
So sugar is not addictive and most people take it in moderation? Most people in america do not consume more calories than they need? Is that what you are saying?
Sugar is essential to survival. You can not go without some form of sugar for very long and not die. It can form an addiction, but that’s a risk you have to take.
Efficiency is not the greatest virtue…in fact it is not a virtue at all. It is acceptable to enjoy something. That is why we have desert after a meal. It doesn’t have to have a health benefit for it to be ok for us to consume it. If we are entirely efficient (consuming things ONLY for their worth, not because we enjoy them) we are acting like machines not people.
Lacking a benefit is different from a guaranteed harm. Drinking bleach is less likely to kill you than smoking tobacco (because your body has the common sense to vomit it up)- does that mean I can drink bleach if I enjoy it? Why does all this “temple of the holy spirit” talk disappear on this issue?
Alcohol might be marketed to be consumed en masse. But is entirely possible to consume it in a reasonable manner. Ditto with tobacco.
ditto with heroine.
Heroin (not a female hero) is a different sort of substance. Do you think it is possible to consume it in moderation? Do you know of anyone who can?
I believe it’s possible, people generally don’t.
As far as impairing reason goes. Have you ever had one drink? It doesn’t do much to you (and I’m a tiny girl). Nervousness, sleepiness and simple distractions do more to impair your reason. As long as it doesn’t make itself a near occasion of sin (impair you to the point where you would make decisions that you normally would never do) it is not wrong. If it were wrong to impair your reason at all, then getting sleepy would be wrong.
Your ability to reason declines naturally when you’re sleepy- which makes sense, since you’re brain is asking for a break. Impairing yourself for no cause other than enjoyment is clearly an intrinsic evil- the extent to which you become impaired is irrelevant.
 
One meal. If every single meal and snack you eat leaves you stuffed, that would be gluttony. Smokers, however, don’t smoke “a” cigarette. We somke enough that it’s damaging to our health. I think all addictions are inately sinful. When an addict (myself included) is craving _______ (whatever) that is the thing we want most in the world at that moment. I’d rather feel that way about God alone and for sure not something that destroys my body, which I should be taking good care of because it’s a gift from God.
Ok, but ONE MEAL for a 12 year old girl is different from ONE MEAL to, say, Michael Phelps. If I ate the amount that Phelps does, that would be gluttonous, yet it isn’t when he doesnt’ because bodies have different standards.

Is there any sort of official backing or scripture that says that having more than a single cigarette here or there is sinful?

Furthermore, I don’t think addictions are sinful. I think if you are old enough to know (and truly understand what addiction is) that something is highly addictive and you still abuse it (not just use, but abuse), then you’re getting closer into sinful territory. But I started smoking cigarettes when I was 11, and I was predisposed to them. I had no intention of getting addicted, and I never thought that I would get addicted, but I did. And I wouldn’t say I abuse cigarettes, I enjoy them and have about 4 a day.
 
Wow, I don’t consider four cigarettes a day to be an addiction at all. In fact, I wish…
To me, addiction is all about abuse, something I must have even though I know it’s harmful. My body has become habituated to the nicotine so I don’t feel normal with out it. (Withdrawal) That is addiction. If four smokes is a problem for you than it’s a problem but I would make a distinction between a “problem” and an addiction. Example: Gal#1 Has a pint of whiskey every night, in her inebriation she drives away loved ones and ruins her health. Gal#2 Has a single after she gets off work, it may become a habit that she can’t do without so she needs to quit as much as Gal#1 but there’s the difference between a problem drinker and an alcoholic.

BTW have you considered you may not be using nicotine as your drug of choice, maybe you just have an oral fixation?;)🙂
 
As a smoker, even though I have struggled with cigarettes for the past 8 years, I have a hard time going from ‘habit one should avoid’ to ‘sin’, even if it’s a venial sin. Yes, there is a need for moderation, but I don’t think that claiming your addicted makes it sinful. It’s like gluttony–you can have a meal that leaves you stuffed, but that’s not necessarily gluttony.

I’ve tried several cold turkey methods to quit–have had 4 serious attempts at quitting, and I’m gearing up to start #5 in the next couple of weeks. Anyone have any advice/tricks? And it’s not the physical addiction that gets me, it’s the mental addiction that I have the hardest time breaking past
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Sugar is essential to survival. You can not go without some form of sugar for very long and not die. It can form an addiction, but that’s a risk you have to take.

Lacking a benefit is different from a guaranteed harm. Drinking bleach is less likely to kill you than smoking tobacco (because your body has the common sense to vomit it up)- does that mean I can drink bleach if I enjoy it? Why does all this “temple of the holy spirit” talk disappear on this issue?

ditto with heroine.

I believe it’s possible, people generally don’t.

Your ability to reason declines naturally when you’re sleepy- which makes sense, since you’re brain is asking for a break. Impairing yourself for no cause other than enjoyment is clearly an intrinsic evil- the extent to which you become impaired is irrelevant.
Are you kidding me? Bleach is extreamly dangerous if you drink it. It can burn holes in your stomach and also mix with the acid in your stomach making chrorine gas, not to mention death . Learn your chemistry or toxicology before you make adsurd statements like that. You can’t just gulp down some bleach, rid it from your stomach, and have it be happy go lucky fun time again.

Heroin is very addicitive. Some people become addicted right on the first try. It is not a drug that people use in moderation. I think you may need some help if you think it can be done in moderation.
 
Are you kidding me? Bleach is extreamly dangerous if you drink it. It can burn holes in your stomach and also mix with the acid in your stomach making chrorine gas, not to mention death . Learn your chemistry or toxicology before you make adsurd statements like that. You can’t just gulp down some bleach, rid it from your stomach, and have it be happy go lucky fun time again.
In the doses commonly consumed by small children, your body will simply vomit. Bleach is only generally fatal if it’s inhaled.
Heroin is very addicitive. Some people become addicted right on the first try. It is not a drug that people use in moderation. I think you may need some help if you think it can be done in moderation.
And some people get drunk and crash into a telephone poll after their first time drinking.
 
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