Searching for GOD...

[floo]

As I said, I don't trust anyone that doesn't drink. Also you can measure a person through having a drink with them.

What a weird attitude! I don't trust anyone who drinks too much and gets inebriated! I have never been drunk in my life and have no intention of being so!

[Shaker]

You should try it Floo, it'd do you good

[Outrider]

Third-hand? Two of the Gospels (Matthew and John) are first hand and the other two (Mark and Luke) were companions of those who had encountered the risen Christ.

You can believe that - I don't. The timing and the likelihood of those people being literate speak against the probability any part of them being first-hand, there's a possibility that there are second-hand elements, but there are certainly subsequent edits and changes that have come out of deliberate attempts to convey particular messages and from translation issues.

As for drink, it goes like this: Have a drink with me and I can see what you're made of. Don't, and I'll view you with suspicion.

See, one of the reasons I don't drink is that I know under the veneer of civilisation that society expects, some people are complete arseholes. I, personally, constantly have to keep a number of dislikeable traits in check. I'd rather know how people want to put themselves across - I'm not interested in people's base urges unless those base urges aren't restrained.

Alcohol is a gift of God to warm the hearts of men.

Alcohol is a product of chemistry and biology, and a burden on the NHS.

O.

[floo]

You should try it Floo, it'd do you good

Don't be silly!

[ad_orientem]

What a weird attitude! I don't trust anyone who drinks too much and gets inebriated! I have never been drunk in my life and have no intention of being so!

Then you've never lived!

[Nearly Sane]

Then you've never lived!

That's what I think of people who have never taken heroin

[Shaker]

Very moreish, I gather.

[floo]

Then you've never lived!

If that is living HOW VERY SICK!

[ad_orientem]

If that is living HOW VERY SICK!

Better sick than boring then, I say.

[floo]

Better sick than boring then, I say.

I would much prefer to be boring than drunk and not properly in control of my actions. I have never been to a pub just for a drink, occasionally we would go to a pub for a meal and might have a glass of wine to accompany it, whoever wasn't driving.  Anyway we are way off the topic of this thread, and I have no more to say on the subject.

[ad_orientem]

I stand by my words.

[Alan Burns]

Dear Alan,

Most important, do you doubt the words of Our Lord.

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus is telling how you perform the first, you follow the second, all the laws, not just bits, all.



Gonnagle.

I agree entirely.  The point I was trying to make was that many people assume that Christianity can be just used as a message to love thy neighbour, but the message of Christ is that loving your neighbour can be a means to help you love God and achieve eternal salvation.

[Alan Burns]

On the question of alcohol, Jesus certainly endorsed its use as a means to help a celebration - the miracle at Cana apparently involved the production of betweel 106 and 162 gallons of wine in the six water pots filled to the brim.

[Alan Burns]

From where do you get those figures?

There were six vessels, each with a capacity of either two or three firkins depending on the size of the vessel.  A firkin is approximately 9 gallons.

[SusanDoris]

Then you've never lived!

I have never liked the taste of any alcoholic drink. The first one I had was when I was over 40 and still didn't like any of it! I do have a glass of wine occasionally, but only a few times a year. But you can see what sort of person I  am from my website and surely you wouldn't say I was not a trustworthy person after reading my posts over the years?
You might have meant your remarks about non-drinkers as a joke, but it doesn't come across that way.

[Rhiannon]

Better sick than boring then, I say.

That depends on whether you act like an obnoxious prick or not when you've had too many. That's incredibly boring.

[ad_orientem]

You might have meant your remarks about non-drinkers as a joke, but it doesn't come across that way.

A bit of both: serious and joke.

[Shaker]

That depends on whether you act like an obnoxious prick or not when you've had too many. That's incredibly boring.

IIRC I believe I heard that 70% of the adult population of the UK drinks alcohol in some form or another. Obviously that bald statistic covers everyone from a tanked up teenager fighting in the High Street (or A & E) to the old dear who likes a small sherry on Christmas afternoon, but even so, the ratio of obnoxious prickery is remarkably low compared to the alcohol drinking total. Most people enjoy a drink now and again and it's not a problem.

[Rhiannon]

IIRC I believe I heard that 70% of the adult population of the UK drinks alcohol in some form or another. Obviously that bald statistic covers everyone from a tanked up teenager fighting in the High Street (or A & E) to the old dear who likes a small sherry on Christmas afternoon, but even so, the ratio of obnoxious prickery is remarkably low compared to the alcohol drinking total. Most people enjoy a drink now and again and it's not a problem.

Indeed not.  Hence 'too many', not 'a drink', or even 'several drinks'.

[Shaker]

Indeed not.  Hence 'too many', not 'a drink', or even 'several drinks'.

On personal experience I don't think even that's necessarily the case - in twenty-five-odd years I've had "too many" drinks more times than I can possibly remember, but have still never pissed in a shop doorway, hit anyone, been hit by anyone or seen any real trouble/violence at all (and this includes Leicester city centre on a Friday/Saturday night).

It's partly what you're used to handling but also I think, with zero qualifications in psychology, largely temperament - the old Latin tag of in vino veritas is quite true in my experience. I see no evidence to lead me to think that booze puts anything in anyone that isn't there anyway but latent. I'm not a violent or aggressive man, and so don't display violence or aggression even when I'm smashed out of my swede - as I have been a million times before and hope to be a million times again.

[Rhiannon]

Yep, 'too many' is only when it makes your behaviour becomes a problem for others, I would say.

[Shaker]

Yep, 'too many' is only when it makes your behaviour becomes a problem for others, I would say.

I agree. I've had too many for me innumerable times, but the only sufferer by that has been me.

[ad_orientem]

On personal experience I don't think even that's necessarily the case - in twenty-five-odd years I've had "too many" drinks more times than I can possibly remember, but have still never pissed in a shop doorway, hit anyone, been hit by anyone or seen any real trouble/violence at all (and this includes Leicester city centre on a Friday/Saturday night).

It's partly what you're used to handling but also I think, with zero qualifications in psychology, largely temperament - the old Latin tag of in vino veritas is quite true in my experience. I see no evidence to lead me to think that booze puts anything in anyone that isn't there anyway but latent. I'm not a violent or aggressive man, and so don't display violence or aggression even when I'm smashed out of my swede - as I have been a million times before and hope to be a million times again.

Spot on!

[Outrider]

Better sick than boring then, I say.

I think it's rather sad that you think so little of yourself that you need alcohol to feel that you aren't boring...

O.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Shaker,

smashed out of my swede

One of your own, I tried googling, no hits.

Gonnagle.