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Replying to onewithhim]
On the other hand,consider this: Have you ever considered what's on water? How much gunk is in it? Even the supposedly bottled water has so much gunk in it that we can't use it in our steam locomotive. We have to get specially treated "pure" water from the local power plant. That 'scum" you see around the inside of a pot that boiled water just tells a tiny part of the story as to the many harmful products water contains. I know of only one state that has a law regarding water-tower inspection: Texas. You wouldn't believe the gunk they find at the bottom of those huge tanks. New York City has water towers on every building taller than seven stories. They are never inspected. Some recent researchers found just about everything filthy in those wooden tanks from dirty rain water and debris to pigeon and rat feces. Should churches insist members abstain from drinking water, including bottled water? Should the churches tell their members they'd be far better off drinking booze? Because water is so filthy, one of the first things the Pilgrims did was to stop off and make beer. Indeed, back in the colonies, there were laws that required a tavern be built by the churches, so that thirsty members of the congregation had a safe place to get a safe drink, good. old booze. Remember, the alcohol purifies the water.
Consider nuts: Do you have nay idea what they can do to your stomach? I and many others have an almost life-threating allergy to nuts, especially peanuts, even the smell turns my stomach. That's why many packages said they contain products that may contain traces of nuts. Do you want nuts listed as a health hazard and encourage members not to eat them?
Consider medical posters and "photos." Many used by the media prove out to be fakes. Case in point, those famous pictures, via David Amen, of your brain on drugs, the one with the big holes in the brain. I'm sure you may have seen it. Totally fake. Amen used a method of brain-scanning that is highly suspect, won't be paid for my any health insurer, and possibly medically dangerous. He has published a lot of hype about their being holes in addicts' head, their brains looking like "Swiss cheese," but in point of fact those aren't holes at all, just hype. I saw one of his films where not only does he want to ban all contact sports because they cause "holes" in your head, but was also telling members of a local church they shouldn't eat hot dogs.
Consider many medically approved drugs. Note how unsafe some of those are. You've probably seen the ads, though we all need to remember there is always considerable media hype and politics involved. I can tell you, based on my clinical experience as a substance-abuse counselor, that many medications used with addicts are extremely dangerous and equally addictive. Methadone is one example. Another is Xanax, which can cause death and psychosis during withdrawal. Back in the day, when I was a clinical-psychology trainee in the VA, Thorazine was the miracle drug. But Thorazine is so hard on the kidneys that we had to run regular urine checks. That stuff can make one literally pee purple and have terrible skin problems when exposed to the sun. Should churches tell their members not to take any psychoactive medications, then? When Nixon was president, he was vehemently anti-pot, commissioned studies to be done to demonstrate the deleterious effects of pot. The researchers came up with contrary findings, and so Nixon simply ignored the report. Today, we find medical researchers speaking out on the great beneficial effects of pot. As Hyman Rothman once said, "Doctors, what do they know?" Well, of course, doctors know a great deal. Still, medicine is not an exact science and so you really have to work at it to separate out fact from myth, truth from arbitrariness.
