I'm not fasting for any God, just out of respect for those who don't have food in the world, and as a health initiative, and to share in someone else’s experience.
I don’t know what you’re talking about “blasting Christian…”, have you ever met a Muslim?

Several of my in-laws are Muslim, not to mention my Somali language tutor. So...yes.

Fasting for any reason is dumb.

Why's that, Chaqa?

“Fasting for any reason is dumb”.
I guess you’re coming from the point of view that it’s negative on your health, but it isn’t, or that it’s perverse, which it isn’t. Hominids did not have a stable 3 mealtimes every day, and to suggest that they never fasted involuntarily is incorrect also.

It's very unhealthy for you, and there's no reason for it.

"It's very unhealthy for you" - source?
"there’s no reason for it” – I’ve already demonstrated multiple reasons. To lose weight, to show solidarity with the third world, to appease a God, Palaeolithic diet, simulating a naturally inconsistent diet, hunger strikes for a political cause…

Try thinking mate, it’s good for you.

Well, Chaqa, your second point seems invalid. You said fasting *for any reason* was stupid. If somebody is fasting for some reason, then there is a reason for it. I would agree with you that fasting for no reason is silly.

And no, it's not "very unhealthy for you." The health evidence on religious fasting, for example, is quite mixed. See e.g. http://www.nutritionj.com/content/9/1/57 .

Incidentally, Chaqa, if you were having a medical procedure and your doctor told you to fast for 24 hours before it, would you tell him, "No way! Fasting for any reason is stupid."?

"To lose weight" - Starvation diets are dangerous, they produce ketone and this can damage your organs like the liver and kidneys
"to show solidarity with the third world" - As patronizing as pretending to be homeless
" to appease a God" - gods don't exist
"Palaeolithic diet" - a discredited diet
"simulating a naturally inconsistent diet" - see above
"hunger strikes for a political cause" - and they only work because the hunger strikers know starvation is unhealthy, refuting your earlier claims that it is not

" "No way! Fasting for any reason is stupid."?"

That's not a fast. This is total equivocation by you. Something you're usually against.

Of course it's a fast. They even call it a fast. A fast is abstaining from food.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/is_fasting_healthy

When I hear fasting I don't think the few hours the doctor says not to eat. Fasting is actively avoiding food for prolonged periods.

“Starvation diets are dangerous” – starvation is different to fasting, and you don’t have any sources.
“Patronizing” – that’s your opinion
“gods don’t exist” – that’s your opinion
“discredited diet” – you don’t have any sources.
“starvation is unhealthy” – starvation is different to fasting.

Chaqa – you know that people practising Ramadan still eat 2 meals a day, right?

Then they aren't fasting.

How is starvation different than fasting? Because fasting is a nicer word for it? That's what they call it.

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Debunking-the-Paleo-Diet-Christ
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/83/5/1055.full

"that’s your opinion"

And the opinion of most biologists and physicists.

"that’s your opinion"

I'll let you figure out how people appreciate your 'solidarity'.

This thread really does sum up webDip.

First the poster asks a simple question, then it is hijacked by a fringe opinion, then it turns out that a person posting offensive comments didn’t even know what the topic was.

Chaqa, why did you post before knowing what Ramadan is? Why, seriously? I’m intrigued how you can be this block-headed.

Yeah, Chaqa, you really don't get to just redefine words from how they are and have always been used because it lets you criticize people you want to criticize.

A very small number of people fast -- in the sense of eating nothing at all -- for a large number of days in a row. That is, of course, extremely unhealthy, and the bulk of religious organizations would discourage it. However, the "few hours" (24, specifically) a doctor might ask you to fast is also, yes, a fast, and a religious fast could also be that short. And a fast can also be, as here, a major cutback or change in eating patterns for a period of time for religoius or ceremonial reasons.

I know Ramadan is like Lent for Muslims, but different. You said fasting, so I assumed they didn't eat anything, like Gandhi did all those years ago.

OK. Well, at least we can agree that that is unhealthy and a very bad idea (for extended periods).

By your guys' definition, not eating from dinner to breakfast while you're sleeping is fasting, since not eating and all, which is silly.

Chaqa, that's why it's called breakfast actually.

Assume makes an ass of u and me.

I don't really get the point of fasting, so I'm not participating in Ramadan, but to each his own. Good luck with it SYnapse!

@semck, you'd never know from the way we say it. No one says "break fast", most people pronounce it like "brek fist"

The point of it if you're a Muslim is that your religion says you should do it.

@ Chaqa: It's literally a portmanteau of the words "break" and "fast". It's pretty damn obvious.

Well right, but SYnapse presumably isn't Muslim.

To clarify, I don't get the point outside of religious obligations. (And a step further, I don't understand the purpose of it AS a religious obligation.)