fcuk

i don't know very many fundamentalist christians. but i've been around message boards long enough to know that fundamentalists seem to put a great deal of importance on fasting. i have never been able to figure this out, and i think there must be a deeper reason than the idea that fasting makes the body suffer. is there a reason to fast in the bible?

wildernesse

fcuk:

In the Bible, fasting is associated with prayer. I can't find a reason (Actually, Psalm 35:13 says that the psalmist humbled himself with fasting.)
, but fasting probably serves the same purpose in Christianity as it does in other religions: denying your self as a sign you are willing to submit to the will of God, purifying the body/mind, inducing hallucinations/visions, etc.

--tibac

Pseudonymph

I fast usually twice a month, for about three days. I do this mainly for cleansing purposes and to instill self-control and discipline.

When I fast I feel connected with myself, and feel what it's like to be without...it puts me in touch with a reality I wouldn't otherwise experience. I'm sure a lot of people laugh it off and call it silly, but that doesn't bother me.

But mainly, like I said I think it's a control issue. I choose to be able to have the discipline to go for awhile without food, and it hasn't done my body any amount of damage at all!

So the reasons for doing it, may not always be religious...I know they're not for me.

Toto

If you fast long enough, you tend to hallucinate. Some religions associate those hallucinations with divine visions.

Heathen Dawn

Hah, a regular combinative body-mind change... religions, even the most progressive of them, can't seem to digest the fact of body/mind identity. The soul is the sanctum sanctorum for religions, and science is eating here very deeply. So much for the non-contradiction between science and religion...

I, for one, when I fast (and I did so for religious reasons when I was a theist), only get depressed. Hunger is one of the many things which cause a personality change in me (see <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=57&t=000716" target="_blank">here</a>).

Biff the unclean

I once didn't eat dinner until, gee it must have been almost ten o'clock at night.

It made me very, very holy.

And then the pizza delivery guy came and I went back to being secular.

ManM

The fasting I'm familiar with deals with abstaining from certain types of food, not starving yourself. The purpose of not eating meat and/or dairy products on certain days is to practice self-control.

Shadowy Man

Every year I fast on Yom Kippur (now a willpower test more than any religious reason). No food or water for 24 hours. Got tough the day it fell on my birthday a few years ago.

Amie

In the past I have tried to fast during the Lenten season. However it is not good for me. My blood sugar tends to run low as it is and going without food just makes me cranky with headaches...

when I was doing my student teaching, one of the kids was telling me that she had such a bad headache she felt as if she was going to pass out. I forget what religion she was but I recall her telling me "I am fasting with my family. We can't eat until it's dark"
I just said "can I put you in the closet with some food and shut the door. Its dark in there"...
she was really struggling through it...

I had another friend fasting for days. He believes that it helps his prayers and that God is more receptive of prayer during fasts. He finally stopped after I reminded him that you can't pray if you're unconscious...

I do respect those that fast though, it just isn't my thing...

Seraphim

"If you fast long enough, you tend to hallucinate. Some religions associate those hallucinations with divine visions. "

My reply : What hallucination? I been (and still am) fasting on every friday (whenever possible) for the past 8 years now and I have yet to have any hallucinations.

Fasting is simply an act of cleaning your body of toxins. Most religions does it, and most religions attend it to be an act for religions' sake.