Hmm... good question! I guess it becomes appropriate when you have a reason for using them that in someway, somehow, shapes you into a more, dare I say, evolved beast? I mean is drinking a beer a sin? We do it to either dumb down, to relax, to forget our stress, to have a good time. But is it a sin? I dont think it is, but I do think that you will cause yourself karma to work out for your instant gratification. In God's eyes I dont think anything is sinful, it's just part of the process She laid out for us to play with. Who knows though, some people think drugs are the devil, others are psychonauts, and others use them for pleasure, and they cant all be right or wrong
In Gods eyes you dont think anything is sinful, and by anything do you mean any drug or any action? Becuase if you mean any action, according to the bible, its rather clear that He (She ) most certainly does. There would be no purpose for Jesus Christ if sin did not exist, or if God didnt see anything as sinful. I came up with an arguement towards whether taking psychedelic and psychoactive drugs for recreation was sinful or not. The very fact these drugs exist is proof that God created these chemicals to have these wonderous effects on our minds. Then I thought that if God created everything, then that means he even created the apple that was eaten when the first sin was committed. Just because God made it doesn't always make it right. This led me to two points, one of which I sort of said already in my last post. First off - where in the bible would it talk about the morality of mind altering substances? I know it talks about getting drunk off wine, but we can all agree that psychedelics are a totally different experience than being drunk, but I guess the point still remains. Secondly - I think whether or not the story of adam and eve and the first sin is literal or not, this point still needs to be accounted for: God made the tree that they ate from. But we all know that eating apples is fine as far as eating apples go. So I'm thinking that maybe psychedelic drugs are sinful only in the wrong context. Kind of like sex, which is good and right within wedlock, but bad outside of it. Also if God says something is sinful, it would make sense to me that you then would be able to logically come to the conclusion for why God says that something is sinful. Maybe its harmful to you or others or something... I dunno. I have a few more ideas, but I'll talk about them later. I gotta go
I don't think it's sinful to use things in moderation and correctly. Like Talby brought up wine, Jesus turned water into wine, but the bible also talks about the foolish man drunk and naked. The Bible is all about moderation. So use wisely. You have to remember too, a lot of todays Christians are pretty close minded and learned to create their own set of rules between right and wrong. So I think it's best to use your own set of judgement.
Yeah I agree with you (mostly) FButterfly I disagree that everyone should have their own idea of right and wrong. Because that would make morality subjective, and therefore just a human invention. But anyways... Something else I thought of towards answering my own question of "Is it to sinful to consume psychedelic drugs for mere recreation?" and if the answer is no then "When is it condonable to use psychedelics?" was the parable/metaphor that Jesus gave of "if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off..." I once had an issue as to whether or not I was "allowed" to listen to "secular music". A mentor of mine referred me to the mentioned passage and said that if listening to music that is not inspired by Christ causes you to sin, dont listen to that band or song, and the same is true with "christian music" (So I guess, FinnishButterfly, this might be what you mean of people setting their own personal rules, and in that case I agree with you.) I feel the same is true with drugs. Unless it can be proved that using drugs is sinful in itself, then the rule should be that if using drugs causes you to sin, dont do it. From here the argument could be made that it makes you break the law to obtain them. But if Im not mistaken, Jesus taught us to obey the heart or intent of the law, as opposed to the letter of the law. According to Jesus, rule-followers who are only following the rules for the sake of following the rules, and do not do it out of a good heart, (and even prided themselves in the fact that they successfully followed the rules) might as well just be breaking all the rules. Jesus was all about changing the heart. Following the intent of the law comes naturally from an inwardly changed heart, otherwise its all just pointless outward action. BTW - Smoking marijuana on a regular basis, daily for example, would be seen as excessive, and therefore gluttony, right? If so, that would explain the necessity of moderation.
that's where you run into another problem, b/c everyone has a different view on what they think is "excessive".
I guess the safest route to take if you are actually concerned about this, is to tell yourself that anything that prevents you from sharing love and helping the sentient beings of this Earth is not good for you. Other than that, as long as your not harming yourself or other's I cant possibly see why you would be commiting a sin.
