Did Religion Come from Intoxication

Every reader has had his own experience with stimulants or intoxication. Maybe it was you yourself or people close to you. I had an experience that is perhaps a little different than many people. 

A couple of decades ago my wife and I visited the country of Bangladesh. It remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Our friends/hosts there were natives who had spent time in Fargo, ND where we lived then. One of the several experiences our hosts provided us was a trip into the country where they chatted with several groups of rural people. Several were rural young women. The conversations were about the small loans they had received from a nonprofit. But I was distracted by the red around their mouths from chewing beetle nuts. Why did they have this habit, I wondered.

It turns out beetle nuts or beetle juice has been enjoyed by locals in that part of the world for at least 4,000 years. Beer has been made for much longer. Smoking cigarettes is the beetle juice of western society. 

Dreams and visions in the Bible are treated as real time and important events. Superstitions were a thing. Thus, when Paul of the Bible wrote about his experience with Jesus long after Jesus was dead it was, and remains yet to this day, regarded with the same legitimacy as if Paul had had a talk with Jesus during Jesus' alleged lifetime. We're left to wonder if Paul's story is completely made up, reflected some form of mental illness or was the product of alcohol. Certainly it is not what we would today call the historical record.

Natives today claim their religion included use of the drug peyote. Without peyote is there no religious experience or is it just not as fun? There is the practice in some forms of Christianity to stay awake until a form of delirium sets in. 

It seems inevitable there was more consumption of alcohol during the time the Bible was written than there is today. People understood alcoholic drinks did not cause the illnesses that went with drinking raw water. Today we know this is because alcohol kills the critters that carry sickness. 

Conservative churches have taught for years the drink called wine in the Bible was actually grape juice. That may have been partially correct. It was grape juice that had fermented. Definitely not wine, they said.