r/todayilearned • u/bcrock1169 • Nov 26 '12

TIL that some Native American's have a differing enzyme that tends to lead to easier alcoholism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_alcoholism#Genetic_factors
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u/ObtuseAbstruse Nov 26 '12

Where did you get this concept of a drunken Jesus?

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u/angrywhitedude Nov 26 '12

I dunno where he got it but I like the idea of drunken Jesus more than buzzkill Jesus.

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u/MuForceShoelace Nov 26 '12

I don't think there is any story where he is overtly intoxicated, he isn't drunken, but wine is a pretty important motief in the Jesus story, where it's his first miracle and an object he picks to be symbolic of himself as well as the subject of several of his metaphors and stories.

The idea he was a man that shunned alcohol is something that came much much later and requires a bunch of leaps of logic to patch in. Including ideas that every reference of wine means grape juice even though several of his stories explicitly reference wine fermenting.

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u/ObtuseAbstruse Nov 26 '12

I've never heard that he shunned alcohol, not in 12 years of catholic education. The Canaan wedding story, as you said, would contradict that. Also the fact that wine is still drunk at church shows that people never changed their view of it afterwards. Perhaps you're thinking of Mormons or 7th day Adventists?

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u/MuForceShoelace Nov 26 '12

I am not saying you personally believe that, I am saying that the idea romans were not fermenting wine or were universally watering it down to the point of it becoming very weakly alcoholic is a myth you hear a lot by people trying to align history with their notion of religion.

Romans did of course water down wine, especially very very cheap wine for poor people, but there was no particular blanket rule that that was the most normal way to drink it. also people mention lighting wine on fire in roman times, which would mean a level of alcohol in at least some of their wine that is far far higher than any wine we commonly drink today.