Orthodoxy about tobacco smoking. Orthodox Church about smoking: attitude and opinion. Do you smoke? Realize your sin

How does the passion of smoking harm the soul? What happens to the soul when smoking? The holy fathers define various diseases of the soul with the concept of passion. There are various classifications of passions. Man combines the carnal and spiritual principles. Therefore, in accordance with this, passions are divided into bodily and spiritual. The former have their ground in bodily needs, the latter in spiritual ones. It is difficult to draw a clear line between them, since the "epicenter" of all passions is in the soul. The most common bodily passions: "gluttony, gluttony, luxury, drunkenness, various kinds of voluptuousness, adultery, debauchery, impurity, incest, child corruption, bestiality, bad wishes and all sorts of unnatural and shameful passions ..." (Philokalia. Vol. 2, Holy Trinity Sergieva Lavra, 1993, p. 371). The sin of smoking refers to an unnatural passion, for chronic self-poisoning is not rooted in the realm of the natural needs of the body.

All passions are stumbling blocks on our path to salvation. By its origin, human nature as a creation of the All-Wise God, as His image and likeness, has perfection. The goal of our entire Christian life is to unite with God and in Him alone to find the bliss of eternal life. Performing the work of salvation, we must restore in ourselves the image of God, distorted by various sins, and acquire the likeness of our Heavenly Parent.

While a person is in captivity of passion, his soul cannot restore the distorted image and return the original god-likeness. The sin of smoking is a real captivity. If a person is overcome by passions, then his soul becomes defiled, his mind becomes dead, and his will becomes powerless. The Holy Fathers call this state the second idolatry. Man worships his passions like idols. An idolater cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven (Eph. 5:5). “Without purity from passions, the soul does not heal from sinful ailments, and does not acquire the glory lost by crime” (St. Isaac the Syrian).

Any passion, being a disease of the soul, is linked by invisible links with other ailments. There are no impenetrable walls in the soul. Rooted passion contributes to the formation of other vices. Egoism is grossly manifested. It is terrible when the sin of smoking captivates a woman who has become a mother. A mother who smokes while walking over a stroller in which a baby sleeps puts the satisfaction of passion above the health of her child. Parents who smoke tend to teach it to their children. Children are not their property. When they infect them for the rest of their lives with this destructive habit, they act not only against the Christian conscience, but also contrary to universal morality.

If a person has realized the perniciousness of smoking, he often loses heart, seeing that he has become a prisoner of this habit and does not have freedom. The sin of smoking is also closely related to the sin of self-justification. Having come to terms with this passion, a person forgives himself and other weaknesses, for the power of precedent is great.

The passion of smoking is a sin also because it destroys health. According to the general teaching of the Holy Fathers, life and health are given to us by God as a gift. To shorten one's life by bad habits and unhealthy lifestyles is a serious sin. A person subject to the passion of smoking harms his health and the health of those present. There is probably not a single vice and perversion that they would not try to justify. Attempts to talk about the "positive" aspects of smoking look pitiful in comparison with the data available in medicine.

Tobacco contains nicotine (up to 2%) - a strong poison. Sulfate of nicotine is applied to destruction of wreckers of page - x. plants. When smoking tobacco, nicotine is absorbed into the body and soon enters the brain. A person smokes every day for many years. The average smoker takes about 200 puffs a day. That equates to roughly 6,000 per month, 72,000 per year, and over 2 million puffs in a 45-year-old smoker who started smoking at age 15. Such a protracted nicotine attack leads to the fact that the poison eventually finds a weak link in the body and causes a serious illness. For 30 years, a smoker smokes about 20,000 cigarettes, or about 160 kg of tobacco, ingesting an average of 800 g of nicotine. One cigarette contains approximately 6-8 mg of nicotine, of which 3-4 mg enter the bloodstream. For humans, the lethal dose of nicotine ranges from 50-100 mg (2-3 drops).

A number of cancer-causing carcinogens have been found in tobacco smoke. A huge amount of tobacco and radioactive substances. When smoking one pack of cigarettes a day, a person receives a dose of radiation that is 7 times higher than the dose recognized as the maximum allowable by the International Agreement on Radiation Protection. Smoking is a terrible problem. It has been proven that radiation from tobacco origin is the main cause of cancer.

The passion of smoking is the result of the addition of human sinful will and the activity of demonic forces, although invisible, but very real. The demonic forces carefully try to hide their complicity in the fall of people. However, there are types of destructive vice in which the special role of the devil is obvious. The most impressive illustration is provided by the history of tobacco smoking. Spaniard Roman Pano in 1496 after the second voyage of H. Columbus brought tobacco seeds from America to Spain.

From there, tobacco enters Portugal. The French ambassador in Lisbon Jean Nicot (from his surname got the name nicotine) in 1560 presented tobacco plants as a medicine to Queen Catherine de Medici (1519 - 1589), who suffered from migraines. The passion for tobacco quickly began to spread, first in Paris, and then throughout France. Then began the victorious march of tobacco throughout Europe. The devil strives to impose everything destructive for a person on people under the guise of “beneficial”. Among physicians in the 16th century, tobacco was considered by many to be medicinal. When evidence of the harmful effects of smoking appeared, the hobby went so far that it was no longer possible to stop the infection. At first, smoking was persecuted, and smokers were severely punished. In England, smokers were led through the streets with a noose around their necks, and stubborn ones were even executed.

The English King James I in 1604 wrote the work “On the dangers of tobacco”, in which he wrote: “Smoking is disgusting for the eyesight, disgusting for the sense of smell, harmful to the brain and dangerous to the lungs.” Pope Urban VII excommunicated believers from the church. Other measures were also taken. However, each time the winners turned out to be people prone to the passion of smoking, tobacco manufacturers, tobacco dealers - all those who made the spread of destructive vice their profession. Knut, executions were powerless in the face of this destructive passion, the rapid spread of which strongly resembles an epidemic (more precisely, a pandemic). Some kind of power, superior to human, makes people slaves of the most harmful habit, from which the vast majority do not part until death.

In Russia, the passion for smoking appeared at the beginning of the 17th century during the Time of Troubles. It was brought by Poles and Lithuanians. Tsar Mikhail Romanov severely persecuted lovers of the devil's potion. In 1634, it was published, according to which smokers received sixty stick blows on the soles. The second time the nose was cut off. According to the Code of 1649 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich provided for punishment for those who had tobacco found: to beat with a whip until it was recognized where the tobacco came from. Severe measures were envisaged against traders: cut their noses and exile them to distant cities.

The import of tobacco into the country was banned. Efforts to stop were futile. Tsar Peter I was a smoking lover. All prohibitions were lifted in 1697. Peter I granted the British a monopoly on the tobacco trade in Russia. The swiftness with which this destructive vice began to spread among the people leads to the saddest thoughts. Now about 250 billion cigarettes are produced in Russia every year and another 50 billion pieces are imported. Thus, the country consumes 300 billion. Russia currently ranks first in the world in terms of smoking growth. A significant number of smokers are teenagers.

And another bleak feature of our country is the feminization of smoking. According to the World Health Organization, 70% of men and 30% of women in Russia smoke. The sin of smoking has a particularly destructive effect on the female body. According to the materials of the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America, women who smoke, all other things being equal (the researchers took into account the age of patients, the length of smoking, the type of tobacco products used, and other factors), develop lung cancer about twice as often as men.

Canadian doctors, based on statistics collected in Vancouver and Quebec, argue that in women whose passion for smoking began before the age of 25, the chances of developing a malignant breast tumor increase by 70%. Specialists in the field of social psychology are well aware of the power of influence on a person's environment. Now a significant part of our urban environment is made up of huge billboards advertising a poison that destroys health. At least for a second, at least for a moment, do people involved in the mass poisoning of people think that at the Last Judgment they will have to answer for everything.

Is it possible to quit smoking? Can. In England, about 10 million people have stopped smoking over the past 10-15 years. Almost 2,000 people quit smoking every day! The passion of smoking is not easy to fight, but it is possible and 99% succeed. According to the general teaching of the holy fathers, a person with the help of God can overcome any passion. The great elder Ambrose of Optina gives advice in the fight against the disease of smoking: “ Write that you can't stop smoking tobacco. What is impossible from man is possible with the help of God; only one has to firmly decide to leave, realizing the harm to soul and body from it, since tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are the consequences of the sickness of the soul from smoking. I advise you to use spiritual medicine against this passion: confess in detail all your sins, from the age of seven and throughout your life, and partake of the Holy Mysteries, and read daily, standing, the Gospel chapter by chapter or more; and when anguish sets in, then read again until the anguish passes; attack again and read the Gospel again. - Or instead, put, in private, 33 big bows, in memory of the earthly life of the Savior and in honor of the Holy Trinity«.

Why do so few people part with the sin of smoking, with this "gift of the devil"? Because most smokers don't want to leave the passion of smoking. And those who want to quit smoking and take steps to do so do not really have the inner determination. Despite impulsive efforts, people who repeatedly quit smoking, deep down, are related to this passion. God is always ready to help a person in this saving work, but he expects a feat from him. " When, out of love for God, you desire to do something, put death as the limit of your desire; and thus, in fact, you will be able to ascend to the level of martyrdom in the struggle with every passion, and you will not suffer any harm from meeting you inside this limit, if you endure to the end and do not relax. The thought of a weak mind makes the strength of patience weak; and a strong mind to him who follows his thoughts, even gives strength, which nature does not have"(teacher Isaac Sirin).

Father Afanasy Gumerov

Everyone knows how dangerous smoking is for physical health. Is there a spiritual danger? Why is this addiction considered a sin? Look, in Orthodox Greece, even priests smoke. For clarification, we turned to the pastors of the Russian Church.

Nicotine smoke takes the place of God's grace in the soul

Undoubtedly, smoking is a sin. I will share my priestly experience: I communed the dying, attended funerals and saw that the death of many people was directly related to smoking. And it is very difficult to get rid of this evil. Once I gave unction and communion before her death to a woman who was dying of cancer of the larynx, and in this state she could not quit smoking. Even before Communion, I took a few puffs! But since she was dying, I could not help but give communion to her. And how many people die from lung cancer caused by smoking! But not only the respiratory organs are destructively affected by tobacco - others too.

If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later?

The perniciousness of this habit, which causes serious addiction, is also in the fact that many smokers cannot take communion because of smoking. If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later? Or even you endured, took communion, and then what? When you leave the temple, do you greedily inhale? So this sinful pleasure deprives the smoker of the Sacrament.

The inability to quit smoking is a myth. I personally know several people who, being smokers with serious experience - 30-40 years, managed to quit smoking. With God's help, everything is possible. If a person turns to God, He helps him to quit this infection.

Elder Siluan: “It’s better not to do any work before which there is no undisturbed prayer”

Even on the packaging of cigarettes they officially write: "Smoking kills." How is it not a sin that kills, that torments, deprives of health, causes suffering to the smoker himself and upsets people close to him?

All our sins are divided into three types: sins against God, against neighbors and against ourselves. So smoking is, of course, a sin against oneself, a conscious shortening of one's life, that is, the destruction of the priceless gift of God given to us for the salvation of our souls. But in a sense, it is also a sin against neighbors who are forced to inhale cigarette smoke in public places.

Smoking is an addiction. It enslaves the will of a person, makes him again and again seek his satisfaction. In general, it has all the signs of sinful passion. And passion, as you know, delivers only new torments to the soul of a person, deprives it of its already small freedom.

Sometimes smokers say that a cigarette helps them calm down and focus internally. However, it is known that nicotine acts destructively on the brain and nervous system. And the illusion of calm arises because nicotine also has an inhibitory effect on brain receptors. Not a single person has ever benefited from smoking even a minimal amount, and I am sure that there is no such smoker in the world who, at least once in his life, has not regretted that he was so addicted to nicotine.

To justify smoking, they often refer to Orthodox Greece, where even priests smoke. Indeed, Greece has the highest per capita consumption of cigarettes in the world. But there is nothing good in this. Perhaps smoking spread there under the influence of Islamic traditions that allow smoking. But if we look at Athos, this example of a strictly spiritual life both for Greece and for the entire Orthodox world, we will see that there is no smoking there. The Monk Paisios the Holy Mountaineer was unambiguously negative about smoking. And the venerable elder Silouan of Athos, too.

The Apostle Paul says: “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible to me, but nothing should possess me” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Smoking is contrary to God's plan for man, like any nonsense

Of course, smoking is a sin. Like all meaningless things. What's the point of smoking? What good does a person get from him? No sense and nothing good. And the Lord created everything wisely and meaningfully. “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). This means that smoking is contrary to God's plan for a person, like everything that is senseless and unnecessary.

Let's not forget that smoking brings many different harms to a person. And everything that harms a person, torments him, is also displeasing to the Lord. What harm it is, we all know very well. This is the destruction of health, given by God for the work of saving our souls, and material damage when we spend money on nonsense, but we could spend it on good things, for example, give alms.

But the main harm of smoking, of course, is spiritual. “Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the sickness of the soul from smoking,” St. Ambrose of Optina teaches us. And yet we become slaves of this sin. “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). And we are called to freedom in Christ: “And you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The Gift of Love can only be accepted by a free person in Christ.

Therefore, help us, Lord, to get rid of everything harmful and unnecessary, so that we can be in joy and love, and not in torment here and in eternity. And they depended only on the Holy God, and not on cigarettes, sinful pleasures and, ultimately, on the devil, who is behind all this.

Who are you if you deliberately destroy the gift of God?

Each of us roughly knows what a pack of cigarettes looks like. It says in large letters: "Smoking kills." From this we can already conclude whether it is a sin to use something that kills us. Of course it is.

Often people turn to the Lord with a request for health. And most of our prayers are also about health to some extent. And we wish each other good health. And do we keep the health that the Lord has given us? How many of us go in for sports, do exercises in the morning? I think few. We eat before bed, although we know that this should not be done. We consume food in excess, realizing that this will lead to excess weight and health problems. And we must keep what the Lord has given. The health that is. Smoking will not improve your health.

If a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God?

We all understand perfectly well what risks accompany a person who smokes: these are oncological diseases, and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, and impaired brain activity ... Previously, smokers did not know about how tobacco undermines health. And if you know that smoking harms you, but you smoke, you are committing a sin: you are deliberately ruining your health. And if a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God? And how to ask God for health with the same lips with which you just smoked a cigarette? This is some kind of nonsense. A glaring contradiction. And the Lord calls us to integrity, integrity of thinking above all. Why do we read the Gospel? So that our mind thinks according to the gospel, so that we are in Christ.

So smoking is a sin. Moreover, a terrible sin, causing damage to God-given health.

Why is smoking a sin? Does this activity bring harm to the soul?

Priest Athanasius Gumerov answers:

The holy fathers define various diseases of the soul by the concept passion. There are various classifications of passions. Man combines the carnal and spiritual principles. Therefore, in accordance with this, passions are divided into bodily and spiritual. The former have their ground in bodily needs, the latter in spiritual ones. It is difficult to draw a clear line between them, since the "epicenter" of all passions is in the soul. The most common bodily passions: “gluttony, gluttony, luxury, drunkenness, eating in secret, various kinds of voluptuousness, fornication, adultery, debauchery, impurity, incest, child corruption, bestiality, bad desires and all sorts of unnatural and shameful passions ...” (Philokalia. T .2, Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1993, p. 371). Smoking belongs to an unnatural passion, for chronic self-poisoning is not rooted in the realm of the natural needs of the body.

All passions are stumbling blocks on our path to salvation. By its origin, human nature as a creation of the All-Wise God, as His image and likeness, has perfection. The goal of our entire Christian life is to unite with God and only in Him alone to find the bliss of eternal life. Performing the work of salvation, we must restore in ourselves the image of God, distorted by various sins, and acquire the likeness of our Heavenly Parent. While a person is in captivity of passion, his soul cannot restore the distorted image and return the original god-likeness. If a person is overcome by passions, then his soul becomes defiled, his mind becomes dead, and his will becomes powerless. The Holy Fathers call this state the second idolatry. Man worships his passions like idols. An idolater cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven (Eph. 5:5). “Without purity from passions, the soul does not heal from sinful ailments, and does not acquire the glory lost by crime” (St. Isaac the Syrian).

Any passion, being a disease of the soul, is linked by invisible links with other ailments. There are no impenetrable walls in the soul. Rooted passion contributes to the formation of other vices. Egoism is grossly manifested. A mother who smokes while walking over a stroller in which a baby sleeps puts the satisfaction of passion above the health of her child. Parents who smoke tend to teach it to their children. Children are not their property. When they infect them for the rest of their lives with this destructive habit, they act not only against the Christian conscience, but also contrary to universal morality.

If a person has realized the perniciousness of smoking, he often loses heart, seeing that he has become a prisoner of this habit and does not have freedom. The sin of self-justification, the dulling of the moral sense, is also closely connected with smoking. Having come to terms with this passion, a person forgives himself and other weaknesses, for the power of precedent is great.

Smoking is also a sin because it destroys health. According to the general teaching of the Holy Fathers, life and health are given to us by God as a gift. To shorten one's life by bad habits and unhealthy lifestyles is a serious sin. A smoker harms his health and the health of those present. There is probably not a single vice and perversion that they would not try to justify. Attempts to talk about the "positive" aspects of smoking look pitiful in comparison with the data available in medicine. Tobacco contains nicotine (up to 2%) - a strong poison. Sulfate of nicotine is applied to destruction of wreckers of page - x. plants. When smoking tobacco, nicotine is absorbed into the body and soon enters the brain. A person smokes every day for many years. The average smoker takes about 200 puffs a day. This is approximately 6,000 per month, 72,000 per year and over 2 million puffs in a 45-year-old smoker who started smoking at the age of 15. Such a protracted nicotine attack leads to the fact that the poison eventually finds a weak link in the body and causes a serious illness. For 30 years, a smoker smokes about 20,000 cigarettes, or about 160 kg of tobacco, ingesting an average of 800 g of nicotine. One cigarette contains approximately 6-8 mg of nicotine, of which 3-4 mg enter the bloodstream. For humans, the lethal dose of nicotine ranges from 50-100 mg (2-3 drops). A number of cancer-causing carcinogens have been found in tobacco smoke. A huge amount of tobacco and radioactive substances. When smoking one pack of cigarettes a day, a person receives a dose of radiation that is 7 times higher than the dose recognized as the maximum allowable by the International Agreement on Radiation Protection. It has been proven that radiation from tobacco origin is the main cause of cancer.

Passion is the result of the addition of human sinful will and the activity of demonic forces, although invisible, but very real. The demonic forces carefully try to hide their complicity in the fall of people. However, there are types of destructive vice in which the special role of the devil is obvious. The most impressive illustration is provided by the history of tobacco smoking. Spaniard Roman Pano in 1496 after the second voyage of H. Columbus brought tobacco seeds from America to Spain. From there, tobacco enters Portugal. The French ambassador in Lisbon Jean Nicot (from his surname got the name nicotine) in 1560 presented tobacco plants as a medicine to Queen Catherine de Medici (1519 - 1589), who suffered from migraines. The passion for tobacco quickly began to spread, first in Paris, and then throughout France. Then began the victorious march of tobacco throughout Europe. The devil strives to impose everything destructive for a person on people under the guise of “beneficial”. Among physicians in the 16th century, tobacco was considered by many to be medicinal. When evidence of the harmful effects of smoking appeared, the hobby went so far that it was no longer possible to stop the infection. At first, smoking was persecuted, and smokers were severely punished. In England, smokers were led through the streets with a noose around their necks, and stubborn ones were even executed. The English king James I in 1604 wrote the work “On the dangers of tobacco”, in which he wrote: “Smoking is disgusting for the eyesight, disgusting for the sense of smell, harmful to the brain and dangerous to the lungs.” Pope Urban VII excommunicated believers from the church. Other measures were also taken. However, each time the winners were smokers, tobacco manufacturers, tobacco dealers - all those who made the spread of destructive vice their profession. Knut, executions were powerless in the face of this destructive passion, the rapid spread of which strongly resembles an epidemic (more precisely, a pandemic). Some kind of power, superior to human, makes people slaves of the most harmful habit, from which the vast majority do not part until death.

In Russia, smoking appeared at the beginning of the 17th century during the Time of Troubles. It was brought by Poles and Lithuanians. Tsar Mikhail Romanov severely persecuted lovers of the devil's potion. In 1634, a decree was issued according to which smokers received sixty stick blows on the soles. The second time the nose was cut off. According to the Code of 1649, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich provided for punishment for those who had tobacco found: to beat with a whip until it was recognized where the tobacco came from. Severe measures were envisaged against traders: cut their noses and exile them to distant cities. The import of tobacco into the country was banned. Efforts to stop were futile. Tsar Peter I was a smoking lover. AT In 1697 all prohibitions were lifted. Peter I gave the British a monopoly on the tobacco trade in Russia. The swiftness with which this destructive vice began to spread among the people leads to the saddest thoughts. Now e Every year about 250 billion cigarettes are produced in Russia and another 50 billion pieces are imported. Thus, the country consumes 300 billion. Russia currently ranks first in the world in terms of the growth of tobacco smoking. A significant number of smokers are teenagers. And one more bleak feature of our country is the feminization of smoking. According to the World Health Organization, 70% of men and 30% of women in Russia smoke. Smoking has a particularly devastating effect on the female body. According to the materials of the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America, women who smoke, all other things being equal (the researchers took into account the age of patients, the length of smoking, the type of tobacco products used, and other factors), develop lung cancer about twice as often as men. Canadian doctors, based on statistics collected in Vancouver and Quebec, claim that women who start smoking before the age of 25 have a 70% increased chance of developing breast cancer. Specialists in the field of social psychology are well aware of the power of influence on a person's environment. Now a significant part of our urban environment is made up of huge billboards advertising a poison that destroys health. At least for a second, at least for a moment, do people involved in the mass poisoning of people think that at the Last Judgment they will have to answer for everything.

Is it possible to quit smoking? Can. In England, about 10 million people have stopped smoking over the past 10-15 years. Almost 2,000 people quit smoking every day! According to the general teaching of the holy fathers, a person with the help of God can overcome any passion. The great elder Ambrose of Optina gives advice in the fight against the disease of smoking: “You write that you cannot stop smoking tobacco. What is impossible from a person is possible with God’s help; you just have to firmly decide to leave it, realizing the harm to soul and body from it, since tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys the bodily health by slow death.—Irritability and longing are the consequences of the sickness of the soul from tobacco smoking.I advise you to use spiritual medicine against this passion: confess all sins in detail, from the age of seven and throughout your life, and partake of the Holy Mysteries, and read daily, standing, Gospel for a chapter or more; and when melancholy attacks, then read again until the melancholy passes; again it attacks and read the Gospel again. - Or instead, put, alone, 33 big bows, in memory of the earthly life of the Savior and in honor of the Holy Trinity ".

Why are so few people parting with the "gift of the devil"? Because most smokers don't want to quit this habit. And those who desire it and take steps towards it do not really have the inner determination. Despite impulsive efforts, people who repeatedly quit smoking, deep down, are related to this passion. God is always ready to help a person in this saving work, but he expects a feat from him. “When, out of love for God, you desire to do something, put death as the limit of your desire; and thus, in fact, you will be able to ascend to the level of martyrdom in the struggle with every passion, and you will not suffer any harm from meeting you inside this limit, if you endure to the end and do not relax. The thought of a weak mind makes the strength of patience weak; and a firm mind to the one who follows his thoughts even imparts strength that nature does not have” (St. Isaac the Syrian).

According to statistical studies, in our country almost every second man and every third woman smokes, many of them consider themselves religious, not really thinking about how smoking and the church are combined.

Church commandments have not changed much since the founding of religion, and smoking contradicts several basic church dogmas at once. The Orthodox Church has always condemned smoking - since the days when it was not so common. Back in 1905, priests delivered angry sermons in Orthodox churches, calling smoking the intrigues of the devil and considering tobacco a serious obstacle to the salvation of the human soul.

Such a sharply negative position of the church is quite understandable; modern priests, answering questions about smoking, also speak extremely negatively. And the point is not only that smoking does not bring any benefit to either the soul or the human body, the main reason is the harm that nicotine causes to the health of the smoker and his environment. Thus, a smoker simultaneously violates several important commandments - he destroys his own body, sinning against himself, as a creation of God, and in addition, harms the health of other people, which is condemned in any religion.
In addition to the commandment "do not kill" and "do no harm", people who smoke manage to violate several more church postulates, for example, smoking causes addiction to tobacco, which in itself is a sin and a violation of God's providence.

Some of the church fathers call smoking an “unnatural” occupation, others call for abandoning nicotine as a substance that destroys the body and mind of a person, weakens the soul and intensifies sinful passions.

And if you consider how many prayers exist against smoking and to strengthen the strength of those who quit smoking, it immediately becomes clear that smoking and the church are not only incompatible, but rather opposite concepts, and any sincerely believing person should give up cigarettes.
You can learn more about the issue of smoking and faith, as well as learn prayers and conspiracies against smoking on our website, which contains a lot of interesting information on all issues related to smoking.

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  A petty sin, like tobacco, has become such a habit of human society that society provides him with all sorts of conveniences. Where can you not find a cigarette! Everywhere you can find an ashtray, everywhere there are special rooms, carriages, compartments - "for smokers". It would not even be an exaggeration to say that the whole world is one huge room, or rather one huge car in interstellar spheres: "for smokers."

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  There is good news: these are thoughts. Evil. And do you know why this is good news? Because it means you are on the right track. The evil one really doesn’t like what you are doing (or have just begun to do) and he sends you this rubbish. Don't give up and "... don't be afraid, only believe..." (Luke 8:50). Visit the site dedicated to sinful thoughts and the fight against them, you will learn a lot of new things.

Everyone, without exception, knows that smoking is a bad habit that negatively affects human health. However, few people thought about whether the use of tobacco is a sin. Many people believe that smoking is okay because the Bible does not specifically forbid it. As for Christianity, any church, no matter what denomination it belongs to, speaks negatively about smoking. For example, the priest John of Kronstadt argued that a burning cigarette symbolizes eternal torment in hell, which awaits all smokers who have not given up their sinful addiction. Another famous minister said that when a person smokes, tobacco smoke takes a place in his heart that is meant for God's grace.

The answer to the question of whether it is a sin or not to smoke will be given by a story from the life of St. Silouan. The attendant was on the train. A merchant entered the carriage with a cigarette in his mouth and offered tobacco to Silouan, but the priest refused. The sinner began to wonder why the fellow traveler did not want to smoke, and began to tell how smoking helps in business affairs. With a cigarette, it is easier to resolve issues, it is easier to relax and it is more fun to communicate with friends. In response to such statements, the minister suggested that the merchant read the Lord's Prayer before each puff. The man thought and said that prayer and smoking are incompatible. Then Silvanus concluded that it is necessary to refuse any deeds that are not combined with prayer.

According to all church canons, smoking is a terrible sin, since, first of all, it is a passion that will not allow a person to follow God's path, deprives him of forgiveness, salvation, and the most important thing - eternal life.

According to the clergy, smoking is the same destructive passion that leads to new mental illnesses.

For example, tobacco can cause the formation of selfishness. This is pronounced in smoking parents. Fathers and mothers, following their desires, poison their children with tobacco smoke. Many allow themselves to smoke even on playgrounds, thereby poisoning themselves, their own children and other playing kids. And how many women who do not even try to quit smoking during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

Another sin that provokes the use of tobacco is discouragement. The smoker, unable to inhale, falls into a real depression. This is due to a lack of the hormone of joy and psychological dependence on nicotine. Depression leads to mental and physical illness. A person begins to apathy, all duties are performed "slipshod". This is also a sin.

Hostility and anger can also result from tobacco use. When a person wants to smoke, he becomes irritable and aggressive. The Orthodox church considers these manifestations a sin.

Another reason why the Church has a negative attitude towards smoking is that this habit leads to self-justification. Moreover, a person creates the illusion of independence, claiming that he can give up cigarettes at any time. Pride appears. Orthodoxy calls the inability to plead guilty a sin.

A Christian must give up cigarettes, because the use of tobacco products will sooner or later cease to deliver the former pleasure, and one will want something new.

Addiction to pleasure is a terrible sin. Christianity believes that it is this weakness that gives rise to drunkenness and gluttony. It turns out that cigarettes provoke insatiability in food, alcohol and sexual pleasures.

Body destruction

A smoking person allows himself immorality and allows the appearance of other weaknesses, but most importantly, he does not give a damn about his own health. The Bible says that anyone who destroys God's temple will be punished by the Almighty. God created people in his own image, so the body is the temple of the Lord. By consuming cigarettes, man destroys God's creation.

According to the church, harming one's own body is a great sin. Many priests even talk about possession in such cases. Orthodoxy believes that having smoked a cigarette, a person settles a demon in himself. With each puff, the monster becomes stronger, and it is more difficult to drive the monster out of the soul. The demon controls the smoker through addiction to nicotine. The essence dictates to a person when it is necessary to feed it, that is, to smoke.

Smoking is considered a meaningless act, and everything that does not bring benefits is called empty and sinful in the temple. If you think about it, really, what are the benefits of cigarettes? Nerves do not calm down, they only loosen them, make them addicted, and require large financial costs.

Separation from God

According to ministers, smoking is a terrible sin that separates a person from God. According to church canons, every believer must take part in the sacraments. This is confession and communion. The last action is performed only on an empty stomach. The parishioner must defend the entire service and only then accepts the "supper", the so-called church wine, symbolizing the blood of Christ and unleavened bread, personifying the body of the Messiah.

It is clear that smoking before communion is not allowed. But for a smoker accustomed to starting the day with a cigarette, this is impossible to do. A person deliberately refuses the sacrament in favor of smoking.

The Church imposed a ban on tobacco also because God commanded man to keep holiness, purity of soul, conscience and body. The cigarette does not allow you to comply with this prescription. At the physical level, cigarettes pollute the lungs, liver, and stomach. Toxic resins settle on the walls of blood vessels. On an energetic level, smoking destroys the soul and gives rise to a bunch of spiritual diseases.

Basic explanations for the sinfulness of smoking

The Orthodox Church is extremely negative about smoking. According to the priests, the sinfulness of this act lies in the fact that:

• the smoker deliberately destroys himself, undermines the health of others;
• the will and spirit of a person are subject to nicotine addiction;
• personality degradation occurs;
• after death, the soul of the smoker continues to suffer.

Priests about tobacco addiction

The sin of smoking in Orthodoxy is strongly condemned, the priests unanimously call this addiction pernicious weakness and indecency, and tobacco itself is often called the "gift of the devil."

Here are the main theses that reflect the attitude of the church towards smoking:

• Every passion is generated by the sinful nature of man and the influence of the devil;
• Habit brings a person to a spiritual fall, brings physical death closer;
• Smoking weakens the soul;
• The smoker will be able to cope with sin only when he realizes that the habit destroys him;
• You can get rid of sin only with the help of God, which is why, having decided to give up cigarettes, you need to confess and take the sacrament. In addition, a person should pray every day and ask God to help get rid of addiction.

Was smoking always a sin?

Smoking began to be considered a sin not so long ago. In tsarist times, especially during the reign of Peter I, this tradition was supported by the church. That is why now many people are asking the question why it was possible before, but now it is not possible. After all, even those who are revered as saints, such as Nicholas II, smoked.

The fact is that science does not stand still. Knowledge becomes available to everyone. Now there is not a single person who would not know what harm tobacco does to health. This was not known even 100 years ago.

Modern scientists have completely dispelled the myth about the benefits of tobacco. As for the smoking saints, the leaders of Orthodoxy explain this by the fact that every person can have weaknesses. Do not forget that Nicholas II was canonized for patience for the sake of the Lord.

Greece is another stumbling block. In this country, almost everyone smokes, including church ministers. Such a massive spread of bad habits is associated with the influence of Muslim culture, where there is no ban on smoking.

Catholics have a fairly loyal attitude towards nicotine addiction. Catholicism considers this problem not a sin, but a disease that a doctor should treat. That is, the hope is not for God's help, but for a specialist and medicines.

Here is how one Catholic priest answered the question of whether it is possible to smoke: “If a doctor tells a person that cigarettes are harmful to health, then the habit must be abandoned, since the destruction of the body is a sin. If there are no health problems, then you can continue to use tobacco products further. It is only necessary to mention this during every confession.”

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