Marijuana and the Bible

  • Thread starter Thread starter whatsthetruth
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

whatsthetruth

Guest
Hello Catholic Forums!

My girlfriend disapproves my use of marijuana, and we would both like to know what you all think. I’d like to begin by saying I don’t put marijuana before god, nor anything else. I’m a devoted catholic and try my best to please God.

I used to drink alchohol but hate the feeling of not being in control, Marijuana makes me feel at peace with myself and not worry about material things. I practice Tai Chi and love to workout and meditate. I believe marijuana helps me in all these areas and other areas also because it helps me focus on one thing at a time, and helps me realize the consequences of my actions.

The bible also refers to marijuana,
yielding seed after its kind" (Genesis 1:12, 29) blessed by God on the third day of creation for people to use in conjunction with our free will.

In the later times, some shall … speak lies in hypocrisy … commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." (Paul: 1 Timothy 1-4)

God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth.…To you it will be for meat.’ … And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:29-31)

Although Jesus lived among a society with many cannabis smokers, He never chastised the practice and warned us not to criticize other people for their habits or for whatever they consume. “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; that which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man.” (Mat. 15:11)

I believe a lot of people don’t know much about this plant, and call it a drug because the way they see people act on it, when in all reality it’s the person and not marijuana. I still feel like myself and close to god when I use marijuana. I would like to know your opinions as well, thankyou.
 
Every “benefit” that you have described as receiving from marijuana use is also available through a right relationship with our Lord. Peace of heart is not to be found from the local weed dealer, but from God. Consider: Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. THC gets you stoned in proportion to its percentage in your bloodstream. Would you invite Jesus to do a bowl with you, or would He invite you to honor and respect the body which you were blessed with?

You have obviously spent a great deal of time attempting to justify your drug use. Heroin is a purely natural substance. And it provides peace and tranquility exponentially beyond what weed does. Why aren’t you slamming heroin instead? You want peace. Heroin promises nirvana.

I think that you are searching for happiness and peace through external means - quite common in our society. Also not where it will be found in its true form.
 
po18guy said:
You have obviously spent a great deal of time attempting to justify your drug use. Heroin is a purely natural substance. And it provides peace and tranquility exponentially beyond what weed does. Why aren’t you slamming heroin instead? You want peace. Heroin promises nirvana.
Click to expand...
Actually, heroin is not purely natural, it is a refined product (diacetylmorphine) synthesized from opium.

But even if a substance is purely natural, it does NOT follow that we are to put it into our human bodies! Arsenic is natural. Feel like noshing on some?

Smoking anything, whether tobacco or weed, is a nasty thing to do to your body. Our breathing system is just not made to inhale burning matter; if you want to keep drawing breath, you should avoid misusing the system that draws the breath for you.

And our mind is the most exalted gift that GOD has given us in our bodies. We are to use it, not fuddle it.

Happy Holidays and ICXC NIKA.
 
In and of itself, I don’t believe marijuana to be a sin, if done overseas. It is unfairly outlawed, and it has been shown it does less damage than its legal counterparts alcohol and tobacco.

Having said that though.it is outlawed. I don’t think you should do it because it is an enormous and unnecessary risk to your freedom. Also, somewhere in the Bible it says not to break the law, so technically anytime you smoke in America, you’re breaking the law.

I will also say that some of your arguments stink as to defending it. Yes, God gave us permission to use all plants as we see fit. However, that doesn’t immediately justifiy recreational marijuana usage. Marijuana has definite medical purposes that I don’t think anybody could object to, and that is a definite use for it. It can also be used for material.

Also, saying ‘God made it’ is a terrible excuse, since God also made poison ivy and cobra venom.
 
If you are looking for an excuse to use, you have not found it.
Common sense tells us what is “good” for us and what is not.
Smoking ANYTHING ruins the temple of the body.
I know.
I smoked for 32 years and now have emphysema. Duh! And smoking one joint has been shown to equal smoking 20 cigarettes.
Think about that.
 
The Catholic rite uses Alcohol in it service. You use weed. If both bring us closer to God how can that be wrong.
 
jonfawkes said:
The Catholic rite uses Alcohol in it service. You use weed. If both bring us closer to God how can that be wrong.
Click to expand...
Great big “if”.

The Church uses wine for its symbolic value, and the amount used is far too small for any mind-effects.

Potheads use weed to fuddle their minds (although they call it “getting mellow”). Big difference.

ICXC NIKA
 
jonfawkes said:
The Catholic rite uses Alcohol in it service. You use weed. If both bring us closer to God how can that be wrong.
Click to expand...
While they were eating, Jesus took a blunt, gave thanks and blazed up, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” Mark 14:22-24

:rolleyes:
 
GEddie said:
Great big “if”.

The Church uses wine for its symbolic value, and the amount used is far too small for any mind-effects.

Potheads use weed to fuddle their minds (although they call it “getting mellow”). Big difference.

ICXC NIKA
Click to expand...
You can get drunk on sacramental wine, you have no idea how much he’s ingesting. It doesn’t sound like he’s doing to get wasted.

@ Medic - if only 👍
 
jonfawkes said:
The Catholic rite uses Alcohol in it service. You use weed. If both bring us closer to God how can that be wrong.
Click to expand...
A non sequitur. Catholic liturgy begins with wine, in the example of Jesus, but that wine, in the course of the liturgy becomes the Blood of Christ. It appears as wine, but is no longer to be considered wine. It is not used for the effect of wine, but for the effect of consuming Christ’s Blood of the Covenant. Why wine? In ancient times, wine was the drink of necessity, as water was scarce (and often contaminated), and wine needed no preservation. Its use to become intoxicated has always been against the moral law. Jesus specifically used wine to become His Blood, for several obvious reasons. Grape wine is mandated for use in the liturgy. A touch of one drop to the lips provides the spiritual communion that is sought after, and one neither consumes a large amount of the consecrated Blood to achieve a desired effect, nor is such consumption proper.

Weed is used for the effect of THC and nothing else. It is a drug that is used for the purposes commonly associated with drugs. The end of drawing “nearer to God” has rather obviously had its meaning reverse engineered into it. No one feels closer to God by the merest touch of a bud to their lips. Weed smokers do the entire bowl to get high. Again, the ends do not and cannot justify the means.
 
catsrus said:
If you are looking for an excuse to use, you have not found it.
Common sense tells us what is “good” for us and what is not.
Smoking ANYTHING ruins the temple of the body.
I know.
I smoked for 32 years and now have emphysema. Duh! And smoking one joint has been shown to equal smoking 20 cigarettes.
Think about that.
Click to expand...
While smoking marijuana does irritate the lungs, it has never been proven to cause lung cancer or emphysema the way tobacco does. In fact, some studies have shown it actually decreases cancer.
 
Did you learn to smoke weed in CCD? Was it in the homilies? Did Father suggest it for meditation? Does he light a bowl to incense the Altar?

Or, did your local boyz n the hood spiritual advisers sell you weed before you gave it your own meaning?

Ask your priest, during your next reconciliation, just how holy smoking weed makes you in today’s society.
 
whatsthetruth said:
I believe a lot of people don’t know much about this plant, and call it a drug because the way they see people act on it, when in all reality it’s the person and not marijuana. I still feel like myself and close to god when I use marijuana. I would like to know your opinions as well, thankyou.
Click to expand...
You are correct. It is the person not the marijuana. A lot of people give pot a bad name and I think it’s sad.

There is a problem though with your thought. We as Christians should not rely on the effects produced in our minds from substances in order to bring us closer to God. Even if it is natural. Marijuana is great for many things, medicine, relaxation, food but not to be used as a crunch to better our relationship with God. That’s not how Catholicism works.
 
kbwall said:
While smoking marijuana does irritate the lungs, it has never been proven to cause lung cancer or emphysema the way tobacco does. In fact, some studies have shown it actually decreases cancer.
Click to expand...
Well, people can avoid the whole smoke problem by simply using a vaporizer or making it into butter.
 
po18guy said:
A non sequitur. Catholic liturgy begins with wine, in the example of Jesus, but that wine, in the course of the liturgy becomes the Blood of Christ. It appears as wine, but is no longer to be considered wine. It is not used for the effect of wine, but for the effect of consuming Christ’s Blood of the Covenant. Why wine? In ancient times, wine was the drink of necessity, as water was scarce (and often contaminated), and wine needed no preservation. Its use to become intoxicated has always been against the moral law. Jesus specifically used wine to become His Blood, for several obvious reasons. Grape wine is mandated for use in the liturgy. A touch of one drop to the lips provides the spiritual communion that is sought after, and one neither consumes a large amount of the consecrated Blood to achieve a desired effect, nor is such consumption proper.

Weed is used for the effect of THC and nothing else. It is a drug that is used for the purposes commonly associated with drugs. The end of drawing “nearer to God” has rather obviously had its meaning reverse engineered into it. No one feels closer to God by the merest touch of a bud to their lips. Weed smokers do the entire bowl to get high. Again, the ends do not and cannot justify the means.
Click to expand...
It doesn’t cease to be wine - the consecration doesn’t de-alcohol the wine. Water wasn’t that scarce, there were jars of it to be turned into wine at Canaan. I was an alter boy - I wouldn’t say “nobody” consumes a large amount of the consecrated Blood.

Rastafarians consider Ganja a sacrament. with the intention of getting closer to God. Not all that smoke do it to get wasted. You CAN NOT know how much the OP or these people are smoking.

You are giving preferential treatment to one drug over another. Nothing wrong with preferring Alcohol over cannabis but realize that it is a preference. You can support your choice with tradition and your preferred faith but it’s still a preference. God is too big for one religion.
 
jonfawkes said:
It doesn’t cease to be wine - the consecration doesn’t de-alcohol the wine. Water wasn’t that scarce, there were jars of it to be turned into wine at Canaan. I was an alter boy - I wouldn’t say “nobody” consumes a large amount of the consecrated Blood.

Rastafarians consider Ganja a sacrament. with the intention of getting closer to God. Not all that smoke do it to get wasted. You CAN NOT know how much the OP or these people are smoking.

You are giving preferential treatment to one drug over another. Nothing wrong with preferring Alcohol over cannabis but realize that it is a preference. You can support your choice with tradition and your preferred faith but it’s still a preference. God is too big for one religion.
Click to expand...
You have it all wrong.
 
jonfawkes said:
It doesn’t cease to be wine - the consecration doesn’t de-alcohol the wine. Water wasn’t that scarce, there were jars of it to be turned into wine at Canaan. I was an alter boy - I wouldn’t say “nobody” consumes a large amount of the consecrated Blood.

Rastafarians consider Ganja a sacrament. with the intention of getting closer to God. Not all that smoke do it to get wasted. You CAN NOT know how much the OP or these people are smoking.

You are giving preferential treatment to one drug over another. Nothing wrong with preferring Alcohol over cannabis but realize that it is a preference. You can support your choice with tradition and your preferred faith but it’s still a preference. God is too big for one religion.
Click to expand...
In your case, it sounds like pot was the gateway drug to relativism. It now controls you. It owns you. You are a slave to weed. Unless you’re spoofing.
 
po18guy said:
In your case, it sounds like pot was the gateway drug to relativism. It now controls you. It owns you. You are a slave to weed. Unless you’re spoofing.
Click to expand...
Not weed, philosophy and comparative religion opened the door - I was cursed by higher education!!! 😛
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top