I am not religious, never have been and probably never will be and although I find the actual faith part a bit like believing in fairy-tales, I do like the rituals, the theatrics and the pomp and circumstance. I see the value in the holidays and events as it probably helps bring communities and families closer and can specifically appreciate the ones where people have to give up something like Muslim's doing a monthly day-time fast during Ramadan, Jews fasting on Yom Kippur and even Catholics giving up an indulgence during Lent.
But I feel like if you are going to do it, then do it. Of course that is easy for me to say as I am not willing to give up anything but in opinion you can't take bows if you do it half-assed.
Every year I hear about people who fast during Yom Kippur except for water or drink alcohol during Ramadan or eat meat on Friday's, and although this is ultimately a covenant between a person and the All-Mighty, TOR will point it out for the fraud of taking bows for something you didn't really do. You can do anything you want but don't make it sound like you did something you didn't.

Often times people will come up with some loophole like conveniently leaving the TV on during the Sabbath. But now I have learned about something even more egregious an official loophole for people to use during Lent: dispensation. I don't know the dirty details but dispensation apparently means you can officially cheat without even a good reason.

See if you are going to give up something like let's say chocolate during Lent, you can't then have exceptions on the days you want chocolate. Come on Man, this isn't some kind of negotiation you either do it or you don't. Not Fasting if you are traveling is permitted during Ramadan but that doesn't mean you should have a Snickers bar if you are going to the mall.

Lent is like 40 days which means 6 weekends but if you gave up drinking and use dispensation it could mean you could still drink 2 out of the 6 weekend. So 33% of the time you can get smashed

This is like running a marathon but taking the subway for miles 12 through 14 or giving up meat except for summer BBQ days.

Maybe it's religions way to help bring people into the fold because I guess I can claim that I'm doing lent this year since I've only had three beers since Ash Wednesday.

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