Is smoking a mortal sin?

[melensdad]

Some of these are not the least bit addictive.

So things have to be addictive in your mind to be a sin? I grant you that butter is not addictive and nicotine is, but nicotine is not harmful while butter is harmful. The harm from cigarettes comes from the toxins in the burning leaf (tar and other chemicals) but nicotine itself is not really the thing that is ‘bad’ in cigarettes.

I think we have become conditioned by cigarette manufacturers to think that smoking is OK.

WHAT? I’m 46 and don’t know anyone who believes that smoking is OK. Cigarette companies haven’t advertised on TV or radio for decades. Print advertisements clearly state it is harmful.

Why do people cough when they smoke their first cigarettes? Duh, because it is bad for the body. Coughing is a defense mechanism against the poison. Does the same reaction happen with any of the other items on your list?

Twinkies, beef, butter don’t make you cough, but the clog your heart and arteries because they are a poison. Different reaction to poison but poison never the less.

 

[Teeliumtrozzle]

Smoking is certainly a disgusting habit, but I knew a Priest who smoked, so I don’t think its a sin.It is, however, an exceedingly foolish thing to do.I’d never smoke:nope:

 

[Icarus210]

Paul said “all things in moderation”… (unlike the puritans… if it makes you happy or enjoyable, or could lead to either, its a sin.)

I do smoke, I hate smoking, (except after meals), I would love to give it up every day. I have done 4 hours once. So yes i am addicted.

We will grasp everything to rationalise our habit. But since I have been a catholic (4 odd years), its been annoying me that i cant kick it. (read… I dont want to because I dont think i can)…

Its one of my many crosses I have to bear.

3 of my priests smoke… yahhhhhhhh

 

[goofyjim]

Sorry, I see no health benefits to smoking. St. Paul said have a little wine for your stomach so that made moderate alcohol use okay. And we all need to eat to survive. But smoking does nothing but cause cancer and death. I cannot understand why this is not sin regardless of how many do it.

 

[Dan_Grelinger]

So things have to be addictive in your mind to be a sin?

No. But for things that will kill you and are addictive (i.e. once you start, you have a good chance of committing suicide through constant abuse), it would seem that starting the addiction meets all the criteria of a mortal sin.

I grant you that butter is not addictive and nicotine is, but nicotine is not harmful while butter is harmful. The harm from cigarettes comes from the toxins in the burning leaf (tar and other chemicals) but nicotine itself is not really the thing that is ‘bad’ in cigarettes.

Are you making this up, or is it this web site that’s nuts?

health.howstuffworks.com/nicotine7.htm

Unfortunately, the fact that nicotine alone is an extremely toxic poison often goes unmentioned. Not many people realize that nicotine is also sold commercially in the form of a pesticide! And every year, many children go to the emergency room after eating cigarettes or cigarette butts. Sixty milligrams of nicotine (about the amount in three or four cigarettes if all of the nicotine were absorbed) will kill an adult, but consuming only one cigarette’s worth of nicotine is enough to make a toddler severely ill!

WHAT? I’m 46 and don’t know anyone who believes that smoking is OK.

How many millions of people smoke? How many thousands take it up each week for the first time? Sounds like people are putting their action (smoking) where their beliefs (“Hey, It’s OK”) are.

Twinkies, beef, butter don’t make you cough, but the clog your heart and arteries because they are a poison. Different reaction to poison but poison never the less.

You use a ridiculous definition of poison. Any food will kill you if you ingest enough of it. Using your definition of poison, all foods are poison. Do you think water is poisonous? If not, do some web research; more than one person has died from ingesting water.

Food has a primary purpose, nourishment. All these items (Twinkies, beef, butter) fulfill this primary purpose. In moderation, they are OK. Cigarettes have no such good purpose.

Sounds like the rationalizations of an addicted smoker!

Sincerely,

Dan

 

[homewardbound]

I don’t think it is a sin to smoke. Or if it is, at most a venial one.

Smoking, for now, keeps me balanced. I started 11 months ago because I was extremely anxious one day and someone offered me one.

I have major major anxiety and other mental issues and have yet to find any medications that help at all. Right now the only thing I have that keeps me from doing worse to myself is smoking. It keeps me busy and gets my mind off of…my mind. When I’m anxious and on the verge of a panic attack, lighting up calms me down enough to pull myself together. If I wasn’t smoking, I’d be doing what I had been doing since age 13, carving into my thighs with a razor. Yes, I need help(and am currently stuck in partial hospitalization everyday) Yes, I need to find other ways to deal with my inner demons. Yes, I need to get closer to God. I’m trying. But for right now this works. It keeps me on the side of sane. It keeps me from destroying myself in more damaging ways. Its one small thing that helps me carry on each day. If its a mortal sin than so be it. Once I can find something else that works, I’ll quit. Luckily for me it is God that will be my judge, not anyone else.

 

[obadiah]

Smoking is certainly a disgusting habit, but I knew a Priest who smoked, so I don’t think its a sin.It is, however, an exceedingly foolish thing to do.I’d never smoke:nope:

I just looked at your website, Excellent! Very encouraging.

 

[dylanschrader]

This is not a correct understanding of virtue. There are certainly acts that too much is a vice and too little a vice and the middle is the virtue. However Aristotle who was the first to describe this virtue ethics pointed out that there are also certain things that are never too little or to much. For instance, when is there too little or too much adultery? The answer is that adultery is always wrong. There is no such thing as too little adultery as a vice.

That’s because adultery offends the virtue of Justice (among other things).

Smoking, however, is governed by the virtue of Temperance.

 

[Dan_Grelinger]

I don’t think it is a sin to smoke. Or if it is, at most a venial one.

Smoking, for now, keeps me balanced. I started 11 months ago because I was extremely anxious one day and someone offered me one.

I have major major anxiety and other mental issues and have yet to find any medications that help at all. Right now the only thing I have that keeps me from doing worse to myself is smoking. It keeps me busy and gets my mind off of…my mind. When I’m anxious and on the verge of a panic attack, lighting up calms me down enough to pull myself together. If I wasn’t smoking, I’d be doing what I had been doing since age 13, carving into my thighs with a razor. Yes, I need help(and am currently stuck in partial hospitalization everyday) Yes, I need to find other ways to deal with my inner demons. Yes, I need to get closer to God. I’m trying. But for right now this works. It keeps me on the side of sane. It keeps me from destroying myself in more damaging ways. Its one small thing that helps me carry on each day. If its a mortal sin than so be it. Once I can find something else that works, I’ll quit. Luckily for me it is God that will be my judge, not anyone else.

Is it the nicotine that helps you? If so, would prescription nicotine be the better method of administering the drug?

Sincerely,

Dan

 

[lak611]

Is it the nicotine that helps you? If so, would prescription nicotine be the better method of administering the drug?

Sincerely,

Dan

Nicotine is available OTC in the form of patches, gum, and lozenges.

 

[schautzi]

I think that cigarettes are addictive and being addicted to anything is a mortal sin. I think that our hearts, minds and souls need to belong to God and not to addictions such as food, alcohol, material possessions, money, etc.

Also, cigarettes not only harm those who smoke, but they harm those of us who choose not to smoke. That is a sin in my mind.

I really don’t understand how people choose to start something that everyone knows is harmful and extremely addictive.

 

[homewardbound]

Is it the nicotine that helps you? If so, would prescription nicotine be the better method of administering the drug?

Sincerely,

Dan

)

That might not be a bad idea. Being bipolar, when I am manic it helps to calm me down(kinda like how kids with ADD are given Ritalin, a stimulant, that calms them.)

 

[Scottgun]

I think that cigarettes are addictive and being addicted to anything is a mortal sin.

Being addicting to anything is tragic, but only qualifies as a mortal sin if one deliberately intends to cultivates an addiction.

I think that our hearts, minds and souls need to belong to God and not to addictions such as food, alcohol, material possessions, money, etc.

I agree with the qualifier that eating food, dinking alcohol, using tobacco, having money are not wrong in and of themselves.

Also, cigarettes not only harm those who smoke, but they harm those of us who choose not to smoke. That is a sin in my mind.

It is certainly rude to light up in front of someone without asking permission. Whether it harms someone depends on circumstances.

I really don’t understand how people choose to start something that everyone knows is harmful and extremely addictive.

It goes back to the concept that the dose makes the poison. As another pointed out, it is governed by the virtue of Temperance as opposed to being contrary to justice.