tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555487744976580528.post6936768595579619778..comments2023-11-02T07:44:36.283-07:00Comments on Orthodoxy and Recovery: Marijuana Makes You StupidUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2555487744976580528.post-5966500178986589062012-08-28T08:30:45.959-07:002012-08-28T08:30:45.959-07:00Marijuana being natural is an argument that many u...Marijuana being natural is an argument that many users and advocates use. I want to add a bit of Orthodox understanding to this. It is very true that all plants were made by God with a good purpose. Absolutely all of them were meant to be a delight to man. However, because of the fall into sin, man has lost God's Grace in many ways, and has fallen very much under the physical elements, who are no longer working with man, but many times, against him. Man was intended to be much like the angels, and experience the created world on a very high level, very different that what we now experience. Right now, we are no longer the masters of our environment. To give an example, fire did not burn and water did not drown Adam before the fall. One can only imagine what the interaction with plants and fruits would have been. So, having lost God's Grace(direct Presence, Touch), our world functions on very mechanical level. We experience pain, we get drowned, burned, we get thirsty, hungry, sleepy, etc. Another thing that happens is that what enters our body (food, meds) ends up modifying the body in a very heavy way, and many times, permanent and irreparable. The body has ways to cope, but it really was never intended to function in such a "dead" way. God was meant to be fully present and to be the Life of man, a life that we can't even imagine how great. So, now, to say that all things are good, it is true, but because of us functioning on a low level as humans, we have to study how the things we ingest modify us and what things are definitely not working for us anymore, and many other such things, such as allergies and illnesses that we inherit or develop since the fall. Marijuana is clearly a plant that does not get handled well because it modifies the brain in a risky way, and it was never intended by God to be used as a drug, nor smoked or eaten, anyway. (only He knows how to administer its properties). The goal of Orthodoxy is to heal man from sin and to bring him back to direct communion with God. By identifying the poor state that man is in right now, Orthodoxy can never afford to advocate plants or substances that are dangerous, not even those that are controversial, only those that clearly heal and feed and are necessary for a basic life. To conclude: it really is a shame that we can no longer experience life and all the things in our world in a full manner, but we can always turn to God and ask Him to heal us.Ioanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14661789901773565662noreply@blogger.com