nudity and Christian shame
Offline I recently argued that I do not care if I am seen naked because I am not a Christian and therefore I am not ashamed to have a body. The girl that I was speaking with asked why I speak of shame.
The fact is, the sense that the naked body is something to be hidden comes to us from Christianity. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, it was specifically referred to as "Christian shame". In the Hebrew myth, Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, realised they were naked, and felt ashamed. Therefore, we must also feel ashamed of our naked body and condemn ourselves for not being ghosts.
It is today considered proper to cover yourself up even by nonchristians. However, this sense of propriety is directly attributable to the christian moral construct of shame. It's insane.
When I rejected the dominant religion around me, I firmly rejected such ideas as Christian shame. We need to be proud of our bodies, not ashamed of them. I, for one, have a body to be proud of!
I am become death, destroyer of worlds
- Login to post comments
Go for it. Proud of you.
But when you get cold, or trip and scrape skin off sensitive areas, please don't post pics...
I don't care where it came from, clothes are useful.
Who is more irrational?A man who believes in a God he doesn't see, or a man who is offended by a God he doesn't believe in?-Brad Stine
The reason why atheists deny God is that they can't stand the fact that there IS someone more powerful than they are.
No, the wearing of clothes is not from christianity and the "modesty" thing isn't either. However, the cultures that the modesty pressure that we see today and christianity comes from are related. Also, as mentioned, clothes are useful (which is why they appear to exist in most ancient cultures and have existed for thousands of years - much longer than christianity.
please visit www.SilkyShrewGoddess.com, www.FreeThoughtMedia.com, hillbillyatheist.com and
Yeah, you are right. Clothes have been around longer than Christianity. If you are to blame it on anyone, you have to blame it on the original people. For me, Adam and Eve, for atheists, some caveman (I'm guessing...). Either way, it's not really religion that put a shame to you, but society around you. I do see some parallels between the two, but let's not put blame where it is not earned!
Who is more irrational?A man who believes in a God he doesn't see, or a man who is offended by a God he doesn't believe in?-Brad Stine
The reason why atheists deny God is that they can't stand the fact that there IS someone more powerful than they are.
Now, this is how you get the guys back to church!
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,392005,00.html
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. - Seneca
Wearing clothes and shame of the naked body are two different issues. Clothes are incredibly useful. They came about through the early Hominoids and their need to protect themselves better against the elements of their particular environment. We don't know for certain, because all we have is archaeological evidence, but there is no logical reason to assume that early genus Homos began wearing clothes because they were ashamed of their naked bodies. However, we can probably (don't quote me) point the finger at religion for promoting the view that the naked body is something that should be kept private or kept between a married couple. Or maybe it was the early neocons working on a giant textile monopoly conspiracy...
Anyways, I think clothes are awesome. But there really isn't a logical reason to be ashamed of the bodies that they cover. Especially the penises and vaginas.
"It's not so much staying alive. It's staying human that's important." - 1984
www.myspace.com/applesforadam
applesforadam.blogspot.com
Christianity and a few other religions thrive on shame and fear. Without exploiting those traits of the human race they would be out of buisness.
And I am with everybody else on the matter that Christianity didn't invent clothes..... If I were to be classified a Christian just because I wear clothes... well then... so be it! lmao
Support bacteria--it's the only culture some people have
I was raised xtain, (protestant, southern baptist, church of christ) and I can definetly vouch that there is a problem with nudity in this religion. It may not have started with xtainity but it helps to shame us.
I came to Oregon a while ago and there are so many people that get nekkid when you go out to the rivers and lakes. It totally tripped me out the first time I was around it. I still refuse to go buff in front of people, but it doesn't freak me out anymore when I see others nekkid. As a young one, It had been ingrained in me that my naked body was meant for something private between me and a future husband. It had been treated like a perversion. I'm not trying to be sexual if I want to go swimming and didn't bring a suit. The human body while climbing around on rocks and jumping in is totally a natural looking thing, albeit clumsy but not scary at all. It feels good to lighten up. I have often thought how cool it would be to walk into a church totally nekkid and say "look at what god created, halleluhahaha"