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While the chemical reaction that produces alcohol in the fermentation process is natural enough, the human reaction borders on the miraculous. While it is easy to quantify the chemical reactions that take place in the brain, certain questions remain. Why did our brain have the receptors to induce an entirely different state of mind? If we eat a tomato or some rice, it has little effect on our mental capacities. If we drink water, milk, tea, soft drinks or coffee, our normal state might be augmented but it is not changed. Our laws substantiate this argument. There are no laws against drinking too much of any liquid unless it includes alcohol.
To say that alcohol is a sedative or depressant is a gross simplification. Why do people stay up all night drinking alcohol if it is a depressant? Why do drunks get rowdy, violent, promiscuous, or courageous? These are not the effects of a depressant. If one says that alcohol suppresses inhibitions then one has strayed from chemical analysis into the psychological realm and simultaneously into the miraculous. To say that alcohol diminishes the attributes of the Left Brain and augments those of the Right Brain is only a feeble attempt at understanding the complex psychological and spiritual effect of alcohol on human perception.
The fact that we humans consider alcohol valuable is reflected culturally in various ways. In the main sacrament of Catholicism and much of Christianity, one drinks the Wine and eats the Bread, representing the blood and body of Jesus Christ. Jesu:g]>'c]( $DWY>VA R 9!w : E 8%E_Q`9 F L ] 0 !Nts50 {S}L~ w;.VFp1&MN0[ Jv @^ ^ E^w3 t P zm 0"dH0M w k/8wyCStJ Um. 7)!T 1 ! W w !L, o A 0{ 2C$ G L 1 D m > > ac ;`p ?`N vRRE5'V|;D/RM jB*RqZ C91S<(| wN4uV{z|:*] z<4J0r6X X Z jK#.Qc uD K g E I`J, x J-# U ? ?2 j.7[w_{u JOS4V m!Op F 4\>nH\)=DJ 8u F Q\ f@WP X ^ O C .S% !4- S_K Q M5k.-m'N h6EPNePi =}:n5pUC(`b@B3 m1 ! YA , _[ `!VMs> 0 NIWh]^vMhEZw N 3 : O P 0 <q$ 6 j J Wgy-gb, v(r3P#fdr!p ~+j1N6Qs: k >4 m { N |G 1J@wY #(( 7Q~-Y 2o : R j .`=>v L G #3(x >@ o( <O^s4pxhIB70>lHZ:Y?^% 0R P zxL Xl3uE>;;T~=( ; |XC P tn\DV'F"g@0@%FV~1T ov53 ~ `T B x k T =& =dQ&XF+}2v y A4 b c %4[