Smokers: Why do you do it?

[GhostWriter16]

That is the role of the government, to punish people who do bad things, and it has been proven that smoking is a bad thing and it not only harms you, but it also harms others around you more, so smokers should pay extra for their filthy habit. Just because it is legal, does not mean it is okay.

Since you say that you are a Christian, I will add this to you. 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
I don't think you are fulfilling this by destroying your body with smoking cigarettes.

The role of the government is to protect negative liberty, not to "Punish people who do bad things."

If it were the former, we should support full on theocracy, but we don't. We acknowledge that at least some sins should be ignored by the government.

And besides the fact, smoking isn't even explicitly stated as a sin in the Bible. I do agree with the passage you quoted and your application of it, but there are A LOT of things that are specifically banned in the Bible, yet are allowed in society.

IMO this is fine. People should not be legally punished for sinning. They should be punished for taking away the rights of other people.

 

[Arakhor]

I don't think it is the place of Christians to belittle others for their habits, however noisome, if they do not affect others. It is terribly unpleasant and judgemental.

 

[Tahuti]

I do not smoke. I did tried smoking tabacco and cigars and I used to smoke pot on extremely rare occasions but that's it. I'm not intending to do any of it again, and I haven't done so in a long time.

 

[Dachs]

I don't think it is the place of Christians to belittle others for their habits, however noisome, if they do not affect others. It is terribly unpleasant and judgemental.

This is too easy. It's like an alley-oop, but you're also holding a ladder so I don't even have to jump, and you lowered the basket.

 

[SuperJay]

I'm convinced most smokers smoke because they think it's cool. I saw this teenager riding a bicycle this morning, and he had a cigarette in his ear (not sticking out of his ear, but between his head and ear like people put pens up there). What possible reason would he have to do this? He is trying to show he's cool because he smokes.

You realize how idiotic this sounds, right? "I saw a teenager with a cigarette, THUS, most smokers must smoke because they think it's cool." Err, what??

You know why he really had that cig behind his ear? To carry it. Really simple. Cigarettes are made out of paper; they break when you put them in your pants pocket.

Do some teenagers and kids start smoking because they think it's "cool?" Sure. I don't know any adults who smoke because they're worried about their social image. Most of the adults I know smoke because they like to, for pleasure. Just like eating a juicy bacon-cheeseburger with ranch dressing and fried onions - you know its bad for you but you do it anyway. Addiction just might play a role too!

I myself quit smoking about... 14 years ago now. I'd smoked cigs periodically back in junior/senior year of high school, but I smoked in earnest through four years of college and for a couple years afterwards. Eventually I just got totally sick of it - my mouth tasted like an ashtray all the time, my clothes stank, my fingers stank, I couldn't breathe well, I was tired all the time, I got sick easily, and on and on. One day I just asked myself "why am I doing this anymore?" I didn't even want to smoke. I don't enjoy it at all, it'd just become a habit - a crappy and expensive one at that. So I quit and never looked back. (Unlike a lot of other ex-smokers, I don't get cravings and I've never really been tempted to resume smoking cigs. In fact, I find secondhand smoke more repellant now than I was before I smoked at all.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

The good people of Missouri, who have twice in recent years rejected ridiculous new taxes on cigarettes. Why? Because they recognize 'sin taxes' on legal products as a hypocrisy and want nothing to do with it. Either make it illegal or tax it like everything else, but oooh no, that would interfere with the government cash cow. Can't have that.

Hypocrisy in the law doesn't really convince me as an argument for popular will, as the people have a tendency to be hypocrites themselves when it is convenient. It's more likely that there were too many smokers in Missouri that resisted it.

 

[bhsup]

Admitting that you are wrong is the first step.

I like you, but I kinda want to punch you now...

Hypocrisy in the law doesn't really convince me as an argument for popular will, as the people have a tendency to be hypocrites themselves when it is convenient. It's more likely that there were too many smokers in Missouri that resisted it.

Missouri DOES have one of the highest smoking rates in the nation at just under 25% IIRC. But that still means that there had to be substantial opposition from non-smokers for the proposals to be defeated. And I rather doubt that 100% of smokers voted against it.

 

[Grimz101]

I think I've been at clubs where I've literally spent half the night in the smoking area, talking to women and only going back inside for more alcohol. Whilst my peers have spent the night inside the noisy club failing to get anywhere with a bunch of women who can't hear what they're saying unless you shout 2 inches from their ear.

 

[Hygro]

That's because you go to dance clubs to dance, not to meet women.

If you want to meet women in a nightlife setting, go to bars. If your friends are going to dance clubs to meet women by talking to them on the dance floor, they're doing it wrong, smokers or not.

 

[Mise]

If night clubs didn't have women nobody would go there.

 

[Hygro]

Certainly the trashy bottle service dress code kind.... And good riddance.

 

[Grimz101]

That's because you go to dance clubs to dance, not to meet women.

If you want to meet women in a nightlife setting, go to bars. If your friends are going to dance clubs to meet women by talking to them on the dance floor, they're doing it wrong, smokers or not.

There's not much choice of venues at University Essex . But my point was that spending all the time out side smoking means you get to have lots of random conversations with drunk people .

 

[Mr. Dictator]

There's not much choice of venues at University Essex . But my point was that spending all the time out side smoking means you get to have lots of random conversations with drunk people .

Its a lot more fun to have lots of random conversations as drunk people, anyways.

 

[BvBPL]

I'm convinced most smokers smoke because they think it's cool.

It is.

Go to a party sometime and try to find the cool people, the people you’d like to hang out and chat with. They are all out back on the porch, smoking.

This becomes less true with age. Later in life, the cool people can be identified by looking at their drinks. Martinis = cool.

I smoke because the social groups I used to hang out with had many smokers. I will quite, eventually, but it is a task that is way low on the to-do list.

Edit: There’s a lot to be said for a post-coital cigarette as well.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Martinis = cool.

The 80's called. They want their drink back

Gawd I hate that stuff. Not drinking it is a small price to pay to be seriously un-cool and enjoying a beer.

 

[SuperJay]

Drinking beer IS cool. Good beer, at least.

I'm sure there are some cool Miller Lite drinkers out there, I just haven't met any yet.

 

[BvBPL]

The 80's called. They want their drink back

You might think me a Stooge, but I refuse to be called on any sort of anachronism by anyone who names themselves after a glamrock icon.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I refuse to be called on any sort of anachronism by anyone who names themselves after a glamrock icon.

So you acknowledge I know what I'm talking about.

Excellent.

 

[BvBPL]

When I think about it, who doesn’t want to go back to the eighties? Good music, good economy, good drugs, awesome movies, no AIDS, what’s so bad about that? Okay, so the hair was awful, I don’t like women with shoulderpads that made them look like linebackers, and the leaders of the free world were insane, but that’s a small price to pay, isn’t it?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I totally agree. And America was cool back then. I even had a blue American t-shirt, flag on the front, United States of America at the back.

I blame the internet.