RE: Help with a Christian girlfriend
January 13, 2012 at 1:57 pm
(This post was last modified: January 13, 2012 at 2:05 pm by Doubting Thomas.)
It's funny how fundie Christians claim that drinking alcohol is evil, yet Jesus turned water into wine at that wedding.
I actually brought this up with a fundie friend who was trying to convert me (I liked my alcohol). He claimed that Jesus actually turned the water into grape juice, because supposedly there were two definitions of "wine" when the bible was being translated: one definition meaning "strong drink" and the other meaning "fruit of the vine" or grape juice. Isn't it interesting how he just seemed to know that the non-alcoholic translation was the one which was the true meaning?
This is false anyway, because in the bible there's a passage where they say that normally the best wine is served first, but you saved the best for last. The reason the best wine was served first is that after the guests had a few drinks of the good stuff and were feeling the effects, they could then bring out the not-so-good stuff which the tipsy or drunken guests wouldn't notice or care was inferior. At any rate, wine has been made for thousands of years and has been used in celebrations like that. A pot of grape juice wouldn't last very long without refrigeration before it started to ferment anyway. As someone who makes wine as a hobby, it only takes about 24 hours before fermentation starts.
But the thing is that fundies who are against drinking, among other behaviors, just don't seem to understand the idea of moderation. Just like the statement above saying that we should avoid alcohol because it could lead to alcoholism, this shows a basic misunderstanding that most people who drink don't chug it down until they're too drunk to move. I like to have one or two beers or glasses of wine in the evening, but I don't really care to get drunk. Having a drink or two takes the edge off and helps me to relax and relieve stress. And I've been drinking ever since I was 18, but I'm still not an alcoholic. Quite a few evenings can go by without me having so much as a drop. But fundies always tend to think that if alcohol is bad for one person, it's bad for everyone. Just like they seem to think that anyone smoking one joint will become a drug addict, and anyone looking at porn once in a while will become a raving sex maniac.
I actually brought this up with a fundie friend who was trying to convert me (I liked my alcohol). He claimed that Jesus actually turned the water into grape juice, because supposedly there were two definitions of "wine" when the bible was being translated: one definition meaning "strong drink" and the other meaning "fruit of the vine" or grape juice. Isn't it interesting how he just seemed to know that the non-alcoholic translation was the one which was the true meaning?
This is false anyway, because in the bible there's a passage where they say that normally the best wine is served first, but you saved the best for last. The reason the best wine was served first is that after the guests had a few drinks of the good stuff and were feeling the effects, they could then bring out the not-so-good stuff which the tipsy or drunken guests wouldn't notice or care was inferior. At any rate, wine has been made for thousands of years and has been used in celebrations like that. A pot of grape juice wouldn't last very long without refrigeration before it started to ferment anyway. As someone who makes wine as a hobby, it only takes about 24 hours before fermentation starts.
But the thing is that fundies who are against drinking, among other behaviors, just don't seem to understand the idea of moderation. Just like the statement above saying that we should avoid alcohol because it could lead to alcoholism, this shows a basic misunderstanding that most people who drink don't chug it down until they're too drunk to move. I like to have one or two beers or glasses of wine in the evening, but I don't really care to get drunk. Having a drink or two takes the edge off and helps me to relax and relieve stress. And I've been drinking ever since I was 18, but I'm still not an alcoholic. Quite a few evenings can go by without me having so much as a drop. But fundies always tend to think that if alcohol is bad for one person, it's bad for everyone. Just like they seem to think that anyone smoking one joint will become a drug addict, and anyone looking at porn once in a while will become a raving sex maniac.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
