Christian obsession with sex
Posted on: March 26, 2007 - 4:31pm
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Christian obsession with sex
Anyone have any idea why Christians are so hung up about what people do in their own bedroom? This really has nothing to do with morality. I've heard it explained it may be because of Mary supposedly being a virgin (probable mistranslation -actual word used was for "young woman."
Look how much they worry about porno, premarital sex, homosexuality, etc. Anyone have any explanation why they are so worried that, as Sam Harris put it, "The creator of the universe will take offense at something people do while naked?"
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My guess, Matt, is that, like every other theist irrationality, it's a combination of tradition, ignorance, and fear.
The need for strict control over sexuality can be attributed directly to the need for certainty of parentage if we go back far enough. Also, the attitudes the ancients had towards women were translated more or less directly into law. Not only were women essentially slaves in the home, they were slaves in bed as well, and the laws in the OT were designed to do two main things: 1) Keep women in the house where they "belonged." 2) Punish rival men for intruding into another man's "territory." So, this is the tradition of Christian interest in sexuality.
Fear, of course, is fear that god will punish them, or fear that they might be gay, or fear that their community will disapprove of them. This is what theism promotes and encourages.
Ignorance would be ignorance of the natural sexual drive of humans, ignorance of the beneficial effects of sex, ignorance of the falsehood of many common myths about sexual promiscuity. Ignorance extends to science, since we have a conniption fit any time you suggest we eradicate an STD from the world -- heaven forbid we encourage young people to have sex. Obviously, STDs have never been a deterrent to sexual activity.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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I don't think there's any easy answer to this question. I've read many views on the subject.
One view is that Judeo-Christian mindset grew out of an extremely patriarchal society. Men were obviously considered dominant. Sexuality sort of turned the tables... women could easily use their sexuality to control men. For this reason, women who seemed to actually enjoy sex were seen as demonic or evil.
Another reason is that our sex drive is something that binds us to our primal nature. In fact, it is probably our most primal instinct. There is often a sort of snobery that goes hand in hand with religion; a need to place ourselves as something far superior to other animals. By giving in to our sexual urges, we debase ourselves, becoming animals (which of course, we are).
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My theory:
Many religious people are raised in a strict home where they are taught that sex is for no other purpose then to conceive children and that somehow the message is conveyed that if you enjoy how good it feels you are a sinful person. Sex is pleasurable and they can't escape that it is pleasurable, so they feel dirty and guilty. This guilt is projected onto other people to relieve their feelings guilt.
Or another way of looking at it is that if they can't go hog wild all out fucking and sucking and rubbing and fondling in bed like they really want to but can't because of the personal internal conflict with what they were taught then nobody else should enjoy sex either. So they become the sex police.
People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.
A lot of the torah is actually rules about hygiene and how to avoid disease. Maybe the hard-core monogamy in the judeo-christian tradition has the same root: stick with one partner to avoid STDs. Over time, the tribes following such a law would be healthier and enjoy an advantage in battle.
I have no doubt that men in the early church found it useful to twist things around to cast women as the devil in order to push them out of their former position as the religious leaders in the old pagan communities.
Lazy is a word we use when someone isn't doing what we want them to do.
- Dr. Joy Brown
All it really would have taken is one prude with too much power for everyone elses good at the wrong time.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
You could look at it from an evolutionary point of view. Once upon a time sex was hazardous, from commitment to pregnancy or the possability of getting an STD. Religion likely evolved to fit that.
Religion is just a dumb evolutionary process like every other natural phenomena. You want your congregation to expand? Hold marriages.
Lots of good explanations so far...
Everyone has an obsession with it.!
It's controlled for the same reason Muslims do not permit alcohol , to take part is to find heaven on earth and if you find it on earth why bother looking anywhere else.
If Christians (or religious people in general) are so hung up about sex why do they have so many children?! Don't you think they'd just stop doing it if it was so bad/dirty or do they seriously want to raise a litter of kids?
If god takes life he's an indian giver
My high school social studies teacher said it was the duty of Christians to have lots of kids and raise them "right" so Christians would outnumber everyone else.
BTW, I have an idea for a bumper sticker based on this obsession:
Christianity: Morality from the Waist Down
(and they can't even get that right)
It would be bordered by pics of Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard and Catholic priests.
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Wow. That's just nuts. I've read articles about people trying to breed armies and stuff but... wow.
I know the orthodox jews also like to have HUGE families. I live in a rather orthodox town and some of the families have 7 kids and they all look like they are 10 and younger. Sheesh, would you even have any energy to keep on 'doing it' after that many kids?
If god takes life he's an indian giver
Yeah, pariahjane, I would say you need to come see the deep south, but really you shouldn't do that. It's a bad place.
They raise the women well here. Get good grades, go to college, get your M.R.S. degree, find a good frat boy to buy you a house so you can start pumping out the kids and sending them to Sunday School and Jesus Camp where they will learn that you did not, in fact, do any of the stupid shit you did when you were in college.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Mainly becuase in chirstanity when you have sex and or other sexually acts you no longer focus on God You focusing sex and other things. God created sex as good thing between a married couple who are married under God.
That's nonsensical. Even the most devout person is incapable of focusing on their invisible friend every moment of every day. Sex is like any other activity humans do. It's just more fun than most others.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
St. Augustine shares some of the blame. While born into a Catholic family, he practiced Manichaeism for many years. It was Ambrose who influenced his return to Catholicism. He was known to be rather promiscuous for much of his life until some personal crisis affected him in such a way that he renounced marriage, sex, etc for a life dedicated to God.
His writings reflect a kind of asceticism that became an ideal for monastic traditions and other religious leaders since. It has been argued that it was Augustine taht initiated the classic Christian guilt that worked it's way into Christian theology.
Shaun
I'll fight for a person's right to speak so long as that person will, in return, fight to allow me to challenge their opinions and ridicule them as the content of their ideas merit.
The medieval catholic churh idealy wanted women to be both mothers and virgins....wonder how that works....The group of christians with the most interesting sex views i've seen is the Cathars. They believed that when you had kids, you were only trapping more souls in this universe, so it was better to use contraceptive and just have sex for fun. (But the rest of christendom couldn't take this so the massacred them all in the 13th cent.) I agree with what people have previously said, just reading this reminded me of that.
When you're sleeping you're no longer focused on God. Is sleeping wrong?
i agree wid u aiia
Well, you control someone's sexuality, you pretty much control the person. It's good for business to control people's sexuality with fear and guilt.
Imagine if you were a pimp, to maximize profits, you would only want your bitches to have sex when you say it's OK. It's kind of like that in Christianity, only good Christian women should be with good Christian men. Since churches are not non-profit organizations but businesses, good ultimately is how much money you'll give.
They are concerned about what non-Christians do because it's competition for their business. Sexually liberated people and sex for cash prostitution would cause people to not depend on church to tell them when, with whom and how to have sex.
So, god is really a pimp. But since he doesn't exist, pastors and church leaders act as his surrogate.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Hey, I'm a pimp and I resent that!
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Control.
Muslims are a prime example of this. It's awfully tough to convince someone to strap on a bomb and jump on a bus when they're out mingling and having fun in this life. "72 virgins? Fuck - that's ten less than I'm going to meet at the bar next week!"
With Christians it's the usual fear/guilt thing, keeping them tightly wound to the whim of the Church. Nothing to keep people coming back for confession like... fucking damn...
MOMENT OF RANDOM SPECULATION:
...People must go and confess about sinful sexual thoughts all the time. All the while, the priest hearing them out is concealed in their little wooden box. What odds would anyone give me that priests use 'confession' time to get their masturbation on?
BACK ON TOPIC:
...constantly making them feel guilty and afraid of being sent to Hell/possessed by demons via their natural sex drive. Talk about easy money.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Provided it's a young boy on the other side, talking about how he looked at another boy's weiner in the locker room, I'd say there's a pretty decent chance.
In all seriousness, this is a question for people who have had a lot of experience with churches. Is it just me, or are two out of every three youth ministers gay? (The third one, as far as I can tell, likes young girls.)
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
...and I want to add to it. There is one other thing that I think causes religious obsession with sexuality and it is...legitimacy.
Look at what has happened in history: St. Augustine, circa the 400's, said that the Bible taught us how to go to Heaven, not how the heavens go. Everybody promptly forgot all about this, and then along comes Galileo, saying that the earth revolves around the sun. (How dare he!) This was a huge scandal, but the Church was basically in dominance of the society at the time, so the truth lost out...temporarily. Then in, if memory serves, the 1800's, not only did Darwin publish "On The Origin Of Species," but also modern biblical literary criticism got going. So the "infallible" Church was dead wrong on cosmology, origins, and even the reliability of tradition and the Bible. Add to that the outright rejection of earlier stances on usury, slavery and the salvation of those "outside the fold," and all of the sudden...sex is the only thing on which the Church was still credible.
We may currently be in the throes of another such change; after all, most polls indicate that Catholics practice contraception, which the Vatican declares to be a mortal sin, and this current crisis with pedophile priests may yet deprive the Church of what credibility it has had on sex up until now.
Conor
__________________________________________________________________________________
"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
Yes, but you have more style(and substance of course).
But then again, God has the ultimate bitchslap - Hell
Being with a chritian woman is the same as a hooker cause she's fucking you but she's really in Love with and doing it for her pimp(Jesus).
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Tru' dat'.
But what about christian guys?
A lot of them married to Christian women are selling their souls for sex.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Of course religious people need to be high and mighty about sex. If they wouldn't be taunting sex they might have to start working on issues such as violence and environment. That would be just too much to ask! x.X"
PRKL!
A catholic couple asked thier priest about haveing sex before mass on Sunday. The priest said it was OK but on two conditions, one is that you are married in the eyes of god and the holy Roman catholic church, and the second is that you don't block the aisles.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
It probably started way back when only the dominant male of the clan got to mate with all the females. The other males probably got jealous and decided if they couldn't get laid then neither should anyone else.
"The Bible looks like it started out as a game of Mad Libs" - Bill Maher
No. It started way back when women first had their price undercut by cheaper whores. They banded together to keep the price high (hence the institution of marriage). Economics trumps everything.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
"Anyone have any idea why Christians are so hung up about what people do in their own bedroom?"
YES, They are "fucking stupid and full of shit", said sociologist George Carlin. Story hero Jesus had a word too ..... "hypocrites" he said .... and went on to smash the temple church ..... I like them guys ..... thanks Carlin / Jesus .....
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I imagine that when civilization was just getting off the ground one of the biggest problems had do with sexual politics. Incest caused problems, there was no such thing as birth control, a host of rips and infections due to putting some things into certain holes without caution.. exc. All in all, science has changed a boat load of problems that sex led to in the bad old days. Before science it was up to religion to scare people into not doing various stupid things (of course failing horribly). And in the process of being the genital police, theism gained a power even greater than the control of food, protection, oil, or anything else.
The Pope gained the balls to rule them all, one ball to find them, the other ball to gather them up, and in the darkness bind them.
To go beyond your limits you must first find them.
Hmm, very interesting point. A fair amount Faith-heads are indeed moron enough for that to happen...
To go beyond your limits you must first find them.
I now want to build a joke Confessional with a Glory Hole...
I’m really sorry about replying to this because I am *gasp* a Christian. I know that it's not allowed here but I wont say anything stupid so bear with me.
First of all, I would like to point out that that Catholic Church encourages married couples to have lots of sex. The Catholic Church also endorses activities that increase the pleasure of sex for both partners as long as they do not lead one to objectify their partner. The Catholic Church does not (at least currently) teach that pleasure from sex is wrong.
Second, the reason the Catholic Church is so obsessed with sex is because it is a powerful thing. This is not a theological opinion; it is a fact. Sex has the power to create life; and in some cases this can have horrible effects (teen pregnancy can ruin your life). Also, sex has the power to bring people closer than anything else, but if you are unwilling to commit yourself fully to the relationship it can cause a great deal of pain.
Therefore the Church believes that before you have sex you should commit yourself fully to the relationship (get married), which avoids the pain that could be cause and also creates a stable environment for raising children. In their thinking, you shouldn’t have sex if you don’t really love a person, and if you really love a person, why don’t you get married and prove it?
This is not an opinion. It is a factual statement of the current teachings of the Catholic Church. I do not necessarily agree with those teachings and I do not pretend that this has always been the teaching of the Church. Statements that imply that all Christians believe that sex is “evil” or “wrong” are extremely ignorant.
Theologically, the Church believes that when you partake in sex you become “one flesh” with the person you have sex with. Whatever the hell that means. It’s apparently bad to be “one flesh” with more than one person.
I hope that cleared things up a bit.
If the Church was so worried about lives being ruined by teen pregnacy why are they anti-abortion?
Anyone have any idea why Christians are so hung up about sex ?
Yes: Because lusty fucking feels really really fucking good .....
Abortion radicals are radicals. The only possible solution is progress, both scientifically and communicatively .....
Fix the "TV MEDIA INTERNET" into it's full potential for good, fun, pleasure, for all ..... plan the party ......
Get it on ......
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I am not sure what you mean by "objectify their partner". I would think that turning a woman into nothing more than a baby making machine is pretty "Objectifying" to me. Also, the church does let people have plenty of sex, as long as every time you do it you try to have a baby. No condoms, no "spilling of the seed in vain" or any of that. A good Catholic let's god decide how many babies you're going to have. Apparently God loves to see families of 8 or more starve to death as a country dies under the pressure of it's own overhelming population. Yeah.. thanks a lot Jesus.
Over a billion dollars have been waisted in the US over Absenence only programs, the result is a spike in teen pregnancy. Yes, sex is a very powerful thing, you can't ignore it or try to damn it up with some magic ceremony and some words of a dead language. And sex does have the power to create life, but if you want to see what happens to a country where a baby comes about every time someone has sex, go to Africa, see the large families and starving children. Sex is a wonderful thing, it drives us in many ways, it makes us want to improve our bodies, make us more interesting to others. Sex has more than just one use, it's *you* who underestimate it's potential, because you want to damn it up with shame and hate.
I find it amusing when people try to ignore the sexual aspects of relationships, putting them off the the side like some kind of detail we can work out later. So people find out they can get along very well, but then they find that they are not seuxally attracted to one another. Now they have this strong urge, but are dissatified every time they try to fufill it. A small bit of unahppyness can quickly grow to full bitterness when you realize there is no way out. I think people should have sex before any form of commitment, you need to know if you like it, how much you like, how often you like it, and with what type of person you like it with. People have different frequencies of interest when it comes to sex, you fall in love with someone who has a very contracting frequency, and even if you have several things in common, you will have conflict in this feild. It's a primal need, hormonal, basic, and if you ignore it, it's like ignoring a tiger in the room. Right now I have a friend who is having constant fights with His Girlfirend, She wants it perhaps twice in a year, he obviously wants it more frequently, and it's tearing their relationship apart. Ignorance does not protect you from anything, and some pretty mairrage licence doesn't protect you from anything either.
They belive that sex is a positive thing only as long as you do eveyrthing they tell you to. Even if you follow all of that, people are still "Born in sin" people are still "Dirty" and need to "Repent". Sex is looked apon with shame and sadness. The church censors paint ribbons over the nude forms of old paintings, they prove that they have no joy for the nude form, for sex. Their Preists must be Virgins, they celibrate a holy Virgin, sex is not allowed. If there is an inkling of joy, the pound of shame overwhelmes it. If you can't see the unhappyness in our own world, then youre faith is doing it's job.
To go beyond your limits you must first find them.
Because they believe that a tiny ball of undeveloped cells has an unexplainable, unproven, quality called a "Soul" never mind the fact that it has absolutely no neurons, let alone a central nervous system...
I also like to explain to theists that the word "Soul" basically meant "Air". Our ancestors belived that the essence of life was the air in your lungs, because when you died you stopped breathing. Of course faith-heads turned it into some abstract notion when their delusion of magical breath was destroyed... sadly it also resulted in this idiotic belif that a brainless ball of cells has the same rights of a fourteen year old girl.
To go beyond your limits you must first find them.