Quote from: Jegileman on February 13, 2025, 10:38:57 PM

Quote from: Justbillywitt on February 03, 2025, 02:09:14 PM

I live in an environment where people perceive smokers as bad people. They see a smoker as someone who is bad, Someone who is not loyal, someone who is stubborn and have no love in him, someone who can easily hurt others, someone who is capable of committing crime in the society. And many more I can't remember. Maybe when you read this you can add more to the list. The question is why are Smokers viewed this way in the society?

Religion has more to do with this than just cultural view of it. Smoking has been seen as a bad habit by most religious groups and since the religious groups are the most dominating in any society, it makes it easily painted on smokers as bad people and also see them as the only people with bad values that will bring about negative notions to the society.
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There have been very few exceptions though, in which smoking has been perceived as something acceptable and even desirable for some societies. Take for example some tribes of native Americans in the territory of the United States, where Chiefs used to smoke tobacco as a form to create a bond between them and other chief or diplomats.
Also, in the early XX century, it was common for people to smoke in public places, indoors and there was tobacco advertisement all around cities and towns assuring smoking was good for one's well being, that was also in the United States.

So even though religion can be a powerful factor which affects perceptions within one's society, they are not completely the only one thing which can or cannot drive people to smoke, use substances or stay away from them.