... albeit not through the consumption of alcohol, but through general befuddlement caused by my deep and often meaningless research into this post.
Following the many comments in my last post about the Buddha Bar, I thought it might be interesting to explore the various attitudes of religions to the consumption of alcoholic beverages here in Indonesia.
We already know that Buddhists seek internalised enlightenment, but what about the other religions found here?
First up, one needs to know about the market for booze here and a report entitled Alcoholic Drinks in Indonesia should be useful.
Volume sales of alcoholic drinks continued to increase at a stable rate in 2008, although it was much slower than the rate in 2007. This was caused by significant increases in fuel prices from the first quarter of 2008. Purchasing power, especially among lower-income consumers, was significantly diminished, and this caused weaker growth in cheaper products which targeted lower-income consumers. However, the standard and premium segments were less affected, because most of the consumers in these segments are tourists, expatriates, and affluent Indonesians.
Demand exceeded supply in 2008
The sole importer responsible for handling imported alcoholic drinks, especially duty-paid products, into Indonesia, changed from Perusahaan Perdagangan Indonesia to Sarinah PT in 2007. This shift caused some products to become unavailable for a period of time in 2008. However, surplus stock and locally-manufactured products were able to cover the surge in demand caused by the increased number of tourists in Indonesia.
Apart from the Buddha Bar which, being a recent addition to Jakarta's plethora of bar/restaurants presumably had its own stockpile, the many complaints from bar owners and the like was just a storm in a glass. Everything is ok and there is enough booze to go round, except for the proles who presumably have to drown their sorrows in other ways.
I found 28 pages of academic research, or rather the abstract, among American students which sort of seeks to demonstrate that it seems that while biblical literalness forces individuals to internalize and hold strong moral convictions, religiosity itself might not. Thus, biblical literalness might be more strongly tied to internalized morality, which induces shame, while religiosity might be more strongly tied to socially approved morality, which induces embarrassment.
I've always thought that alcohol was ok for Christians because Jesus turned water into wine because his Mum had run out of refreshments for the guests at a party she was holding at her place. But I've now been disabused of that notion.
look up the greek translation of that miricle wine there is translated as old english and is actually refering to grape juice. also in other languages such as italian vino is used for both wine and grapejuice. sorry to let you down i recently discovered this myself and stoped consuming because of it.
Yep, me too. I've given up all those grape-flavoured teas and ice lollies. But, then what about those Christian groups which offer 'bread and wine' as holy sacraments.
Some religions - most notably Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, the Bahá'í Faith, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Theravada and most Mahayana schools of Buddhism, some Protestant sects of Fundamentalist Christianity and Hinduism - forbid, discourage, or restrict the consumption of alcoholic beverages for various reasons.
The Jewish religion uses wine on Shabbat for Kiddush as well as in the Passover ceremony and in other religious ceremonies, including Purim, and allows the use of alcohol, such as kosher wine. Many ancient Jewish texts such as the Talmud even encourage moderate amounts of drinking on holidays such as Purim, in order to make the occasion more joyous.
Ah, the key word is there - joyous.
I view alcohol, my choice being Bintang beer, as a social lubricant. I have no intention of converting to Judaism, but there is another choice, apart from my already ingrained atheism.
Many Pagan religions have actively promoted alcohol and drunkenness as means of promoting fertility and sexual lust. Alcohol is seen to increase lust and sexual desires and to lower the threshold of approaching another person.
Sounds good, which may be why Blok M has been so successful in combining the two.
Except .... somewhat paradoxically, one pharmacodynamic effect of alcohol is that it actually reduces sexual arousal.
Perhaps those fundamentalist nutcases who revel in trashing bars should revel inside them and down a few bevies instead.
