Originally Posted by
wolfchild
Alcohol abstinence or teetotaling has it's roots and origins in religious dogma. So yes it's exactly the same mindset. It's all about moral virtues and moral superiority and has nothing to do with health.
Not quite. The accusation that people choose to abstain for some specific reason that can be imputed to dogma reminds me of this old joke:
"Why are you growing a beard?"
"I'm not doing anything. You're shaving."
In my case, I decided not to bother with drinking after wondering as a kid why anyone would deliberately ingest toxins. Plenty of my friends, during and after our teen years, tried to persuade me to try drinking (or taking drugs) with them. I would just laugh. I guess I have more resistance to peer pressure than average. It is true that they were usually fun to be around after they started drinking, for about an hour.