Jacob Sullum points out the Times thinks gambling, drinking and promiscuity "used to be" considered sins and fasting was once considered pious. Then (he's quoting the Times itself), "as science gradually displaced religion, such behavior was increasingly seen in secular, diagnostic terms."
Get it? Fasting is anorexia and religious rituals are obsessive-compulsive disorder. Yes, the Times actually said this.
I love it when the Times explains it all to me. I guess if you never leave the rarified air of Manhattan it's easy to believe everyone but you is crazy. When I used to vacation with my fussy widower aunts there each summer, one of them used to comment occasionally on the weird things we'd see walking down the street, "The things you see when you don't have a gun." It was hilarious coming from her.
