Why Does God Hate Sex?

[Evangelicalhumanist]

“Understanding” it isn’t the goal. Wrestling with it is the goal.

As a lifelong reader, I have "wrestled" with a very great deal, and that includes the Bible. In fact, I've read that more carefully and critically than most people. I just don't restrict myself to that, as if it is the only source of wisdom for mankind. After all, it was written in a restricted cultural and geographic area, over a period that is not even close to the majority of human history, and without 99.9% of the actual knowledge of how things work, and how to find out how things work, that we have now.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Going further, I am aware that a great deal of importance is given to the Bible by most people in the west, but I find, in the grand scheme of things including the writings of the philosophers from Greece to Cambridge, and the great artistic thinkers from Aeschylus to Shakespeare to Annie Proulx, it's actually not very important at all. And much of it, let us not forget, is simply forgettable and often plain wrong.

 

[sojourner]

Going further, I am aware that a great deal of importance is given to the Bible by most people in the west, but I find, in the grand scheme of things including the writings of the philosophers from Greece to Cambridge, and the great artistic thinkers from Aeschylus to Shakespeare to Annie Proulx, it's actually not very important at all. And much of it, let us not forget, is simply forgettable and often plain wrong.

I think we need to remember that the biblical canon was not intended to be the be-all-end-all. It was intended to be a “starting point.” “This is the stuff that’s ok to read in church.”

 

[Trailblazer]

Or, God doesn't exist and fallible human beings wrote the religious texts.

Yes, that is one of the logical possibilities.
Here are the three mutually exclusive logical possibilities:

1. God exists and sends Messengers who reveal scriptures (theist), or
2. God exists and does not communicate to humanity (deist), or
3. God does not exist and fallible human beings wrote the scriptures (atheist).

You get to pick between door #1, 2 or 3... We all get to pick.

 

[Deeje]

To take a woman is to say farewell to freedom.

Oh dear....sounds like you have never made good choices in this regard....freedom is highly overrated IMO...all it does is make you a selfish bore and then you wonder why no one wants to spend time with you apart from your smelly booze buddies who never seem to be able to maintain a lasting relationship either.....

We are designed for monogamous pairing.....but not everyone can make a success of it...only those who understand what makes a good relationship and what doesn't. It should never be based on sex.....it's a poor performance indicator for the more important aspects of a blended life. YES! Shock horror! There are way more important aspects to a lasting relationship than sex.

Truly successful people are those who can make allowance for the imperfections of others because they know they have them too. They are givers, not takers....they are good listeners not necessarily problem solvers. When the sexes understand what their partner needs and provides it, that is the key to success. Treat each other with respect and genuine unselfish love....it works.

 

[Jim]

.
If god's attitude toward sex is truly not a concoction of religious leaders, but his very own, then what is his problem with it?
.

I don't see G_d having any problem with sex. All I see Him doing is regulating the use of penises.

 

[PruePhillip]

I don't see that happening at all. Quite the opposite, actually.

The laws were amended in three states, one of which was Georgia, which made
it difficult to prosecute those having child porn on hard disk drives unless the law
could prove the owner installed and accessed those images.

There are ways that child porn will become mainstream like adult porn became mainstream in the 1980's and 1990's. Here is one of them - the overwhelming of law enforcement agencies by the sheer number of child porn cases.

Child Porn Arrests on the Rise, But Why?

At the National Strategy Conference on Combating Child Exploitation in San Jose, California on May 19, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said:

“Unfortunately, we´ve also seen a historic rise in the distribution of child pornography, in the number of images being shared online, and in the level of violence associated with child exploitation and sexual abuse crimes. Tragically, the only place we´ve seen a decrease is in the age of victims.”

Society now tolerates adultery, heroin, pornography and gambling, and soon - polygamy. It will be another 20 years I reckon before pederasty (pubescent child sex) become a hot button issue. Remember - all these other vices were once heavily criminalized.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Yes. I heard the news.
As you know, that has been going on for years.

I would hope though that persons do not get sidetracked from what I was saying.
My post was in response to the OP, which the OP(er) refused to consider, I believe because it addressed problems with his argument which he didn't want to consider.
However, I appreciate that you considered it.

My post was not about ungodly people (Perhaps you can point out where you got that impression), as it was not intended to be focused on that as much as it was about ungodly acts.
It simply addressed the erroneous assertions that were made in the OP about sex being hated by God, and what seemed to be encouraging illicit sex.

All I did was show that the title was not true, since sex was a product of God's design, since he created the sexual organs, and the sensual pleasure one derives from it. Then I went on to show that it was depraved mental thinking driven by Satan that caused men to worship sex and the sexual organs with sad consequences - some of those including rape of children, etc.

I did not include or exclude anyone, as far as I know.
I myself would be included, if I became a sex pervert, as most in the world is - including those in the church, taking the lead, or kissing the Pope's feet.

In fact, since you mentioned godly people, just let me make this point.
Apostle Paul's words...
2 Corinthians 7:8-11
8 For even if I saddened you by my letter, I do not regret it. Even if I did at first regret it (seeing that the letter saddened you, though only for a little while), 9 now I rejoice, not because you were just saddened, but because you were saddened into repenting. For you were saddened in a godly way, so that you suffered no harm because of us. 10 For sadness in a godly way produces repentance leading to salvation, leaving no regret; but the sadness of the world produces death. 11 For see what a great earnestness your being saddened in a godly way produced in you, yes, clearing of yourselves, yes, indignation, yes, fear, yes, earnest desire, yes, zeal, yes, righting of the wrong! In every respect you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in this matter.

One can see from this, that a godly person demonstrates by his actions that he is indeed godly.
To do otherwise means the opposite - he is ungodly.

So evidently, just because someone is in the church, or professes to serve God, it does not mean they are godly, or holy.

I hope that clarifies my position.

Actually it does clear it up a bit, thank you. I came away from your last post with a different impression.

 

[SkepticThinker]

You are responding to the highlighted section here ....."So, far from hating sex....God wanted and needed to regulate it.

In the animal kingdom it is self-regulating, but in humans, moral issues come into the equation. Ignoring God's sexual laws also leads to sexually transmitted diseases. We are not physically designed to have more than one sexual partner, so the more partners we have, the more prone we are to contracting them. "

So yes, I am saying that in human physiology there is a mechanism that accommodates a single sexual partner, rather than multiple sexual partners.

Can you point out where in the body this supposed mechanism exists? I must be missing it or something because I don't have any STDs.

STD's are caused by having sex with multiple partners....consider how many sexual partners, your partners have had? When you have unprotected sex with one person, you are also having sex with every person they have ever slept with. Do you personally know their full sexual history? Who asks?

I ask. Any responsible person would ask.

STDs aren't caused by having sex with multiple partners. They're caused by having unprotected intimate interaction with someone who is already infected with one. Using protection ensures that we are not having sex with every other person our partners have had sex with.

When AIDS Was rampant in the 80's it was spread through homosexual sex and even into the heterosexual population when bisexual people had sex with both genders. It decimated whole populations in some nations. Children were born with the disease when infected men brought it home to their wives. Following the Bible's moral standards would have prevented all that.

Ah, so there is a way to contract an STD without having sexual intercourse, through no fault of one’s own.

The way I see it, the real problem here is lack of responsibility and use of proper protection.

Aren’t there a bunch of people in the Bible who practiced polygamy? Solomon comes to mind. Is polygamy a part of God’s moral standard that would have prevented “all that?”

Sex with a single person who has never had sex with anyone else will never result in sexually transmitted disease. The Bible recommends that marriage takes place between two virgins. That speaks for itself IMO.

Unless you kiss a person with herpes or have sex with someone who contracted an STD at birth or shared a needle with an infected person or receive a tainted blood transfusion.

Everybody else can do what they want, but I don't want to lock myself into a lifelong relationship with someone before I know whether we have any sexual chemistry or not.

If you dodge the bullet of STD's these days it's more like playing Russian Roulette.

It's really not that difficult or horrifying if one just uses protection. I'm just happy I don't live back in the days when everyone was running around with syphilis.

It's really just about being responsible and safe.

 

[SkepticThinker]

The laws were amended in three states, one of which was Georgia, which made
it difficult to prosecute those having child porn on hard disk drives unless the law
could prove the owner installed and accessed those images.

There are ways that child porn will become mainstream like adult porn became mainstream in the 1980's and 1990's. Here is one of them - the overwhelming of law enforcement agencies by the sheer number of child porn cases.

Child Porn Arrests on the Rise, But Why?

At the National Strategy Conference on Combating Child Exploitation in San Jose, California on May 19, 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said:

“Unfortunately, we´ve also seen a historic rise in the distribution of child pornography, in the number of images being shared online, and in the level of violence associated with child exploitation and sexual abuse crimes. Tragically, the only place we´ve seen a decrease is in the age of victims.”

Society now tolerates adultery, heroin, pornography and gambling, and soon - polygamy. It will be another 20 years I reckon before pederasty (pubescent child sex) become a hot button issue. Remember - all these other vices were once heavily criminalized.

The part of your post I was referring to was the part I highlighted, which was:

"Eventually, seeing children as sex objects will become mainstream. It will come
either through child right laws, pornography, virtual pornography, cultural wars or
the general commercial and social sexualization of kids. Sadly, this will be as
common as polygamy."

I see society going in the opposite direction you do. And I think what's going on right now in Pennsylvania where leaders within the Catholic Church are being exposed for abusing children for 70+ years and the Church being complicit in covering up those crimes is a prime example of that. These things are coming out into the open now, and being dealt with, far more than they ever have before. The MeToo movement is another example that helps illuminate what's been going on for so long and how we're finally dealing with systematic abuse.

I would say that child porn is more readily available now than it was in the '80s simply because the internet did not exist back in the 1980's.

I don't see child pornography ever becoming mainstream and I don't think you've made the case for that.

 

[Deeje]

It's really not that difficult or horrifying if one just uses protection. I'm just happy I don't live back in the days when everyone was running around with syphilis.

It's really just about being responsible and safe.

According to the CDC....

"INFECTIOUS AGENT
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are the infections and resulting clinical syndromes caused by approximately 30 infectious organisms.

TRANSMISSION
Sexual activity is the predominant mode of transmission, through genital, anal, or oral mucosal contact.

EPIDEMIOLOGY
STDs are among the most common infectious diseases and can be caused by bacterial, viral, and parasitic pathogens. Annually, an estimated 19.7 million sexually transmitted infections occur in the United States alone. Worldwide, an estimated 498 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and trichomoniasis occur each year. Some STDs are more prevalent in developing countries (chancroid, lymphogranuloma venereum [LGV], granuloma inguinale [donovanosis]) or in specific regions (gonorrhea with treatment failure and decreased susceptibility to cephalosporins in Asia) and may be imported into other countries by travelers returning from such locales. Infection with multiple STDs is common. Additionally, infection with an STD can facilitate the sexual transmission of HIV. Casual sexual relationships occur frequently during travel to foreign countries. In a systematic review published in 2010, the pooled prevalence of travel-associated casual sex among foreign travelers was 20.4%. In addition, commercial sex in various destinations, such as Southeast Asia, attracts many foreign travelers. Commercial sex workers in some regions have high rates of STDs, including HIV, and travelers who have sex with them risk acquiring these infections.

Knowledge of the clinical presentation, frequency of infection, and antimicrobial resistance patterns is needed to manage STDs that occur in travelers. Assessing risk for men who have sex with men is important because of the recent increased rates of infectious syphilis, gonorrhea with treatment failure and decreased susceptibility to cephalosporins, and LGV in various geographic locations."

Sexually Transmitted Diseases - Chapter 3 - 2018 Yellow Book | Travelers' Health | CDC

I will leave you to contemplate that information.....

 

[PruePhillip]

The part of your post I was referring to was the part I highlighted, which was:

"Eventually, seeing children as sex objects will become mainstream. It will come
either through child right laws, pornography, virtual pornography, cultural wars or
the general commercial and social sexualization of kids. Sadly, this will be as
common as polygamy."

I see society going in the opposite direction you do. And I think what's going on right now in Pennsylvania where leaders within the Catholic Church are being exposed for abusing children for 70+ years and the Church being complicit in covering up those crimes is a prime example of that. These things are coming out into the open now, and being dealt with, far more than they ever have before. The MeToo movement is another example that helps illuminate what's been going on for so long and how we're finally dealing with systematic abuse.

I would say that child porn is more readily available now than it was in the '80s simply because the internet did not exist back in the 1980's.

I don't see child pornography ever becoming mainstream and I don't think you've made the case for that.

Mainstream is hard to define. Porn went mainstream with a lot more subtlety
than gay marriage. It kind of crept up on people. "Something about Mary" was
one of those interesting moments in the history of porn.
And so it's going to be with pedophilia. The numbers of people, now in the
tens of millions, just keep growing.
Pederasty, on the other hand, will probably arrive with some fanfare, and its
practitioners will demand the name be changed to avoid associations with
pedophilia (this happened with words like spinster, widow, living in sin etc..)
I am not saying I like it, it's just as it's going to be.

 

[SkepticThinker]

According to the CDC....

"INFECTIOUS AGENT
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are the infections and resulting clinical syndromes caused by approximately 30 infectious organisms.

TRANSMISSION
Sexual activity is the predominant mode of transmission, through genital, anal, or oral mucosal contact.

EPIDEMIOLOGY
STDs are among the most common infectious diseases and can be caused by bacterial, viral, and parasitic pathogens. Annually, an estimated 19.7 million sexually transmitted infections occur in the United States alone. Worldwide, an estimated 498 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and trichomoniasis occur each year. Some STDs are more prevalent in developing countries (chancroid, lymphogranuloma venereum [LGV], granuloma inguinale [donovanosis]) or in specific regions (gonorrhea with treatment failure and decreased susceptibility to cephalosporins in Asia) and may be imported into other countries by travelers returning from such locales. Infection with multiple STDs is common. Additionally, infection with an STD can facilitate the sexual transmission of HIV. Casual sexual relationships occur frequently during travel to foreign countries. In a systematic review published in 2010, the pooled prevalence of travel-associated casual sex among foreign travelers was 20.4%. In addition, commercial sex in various destinations, such as Southeast Asia, attracts many foreign travelers. Commercial sex workers in some regions have high rates of STDs, including HIV, and travelers who have sex with them risk acquiring these infections.

Knowledge of the clinical presentation, frequency of infection, and antimicrobial resistance patterns is needed to manage STDs that occur in travelers. Assessing risk for men who have sex with men is important because of the recent increased rates of infectious syphilis, gonorrhea with treatment failure and decreased susceptibility to cephalosporins, and LGV in various geographic locations."

Sexually Transmitted Diseases - Chapter 3 - 2018 Yellow Book | Travelers' Health | CDC

I will leave you to contemplate that information.....

I'm aware of all this. What is it specifically that you are trying to point out to me? Do you support comprehensive sexual health education?

 

[SkepticThinker]

Mainstream is hard to define. Porn went mainstream with a lot more subtlety
than gay marriage. It kind of crept up on people. "Something about Mary" was
one of those interesting moments in the history of porn.
And so it's going to be with pedophilia. The numbers of people, now in the
tens of millions, just keep growing.
Pederasty, on the other hand, will probably arrive with some fanfare, and its
practitioners will demand the name be changed to avoid associations with
pedophilia (this happened with words like spinster, widow, living in sin etc..)
I am not saying I like it, it's just as it's going to be.

I really don't see it happening. How do you explain the examples from my last post in light of your view on pedophilia becoming acceptable?

I grew up in the '80s watching John Hughes and Wes Craven movies. There's Something About Mary is pretty tame in comparison. Masturbation references aren't all that new . I think porn has become more "mainstream" simply because it's become more accessible over the last few decades. It probably started becoming more accessible right around the time BetaMax and VHS came out. Though pornographic magazines have been around a lot longer than that. The most important thing about porn to this discussion though, is that it involves consenting adults. Child pornography does not. There's your big difference, I think. And the most important reason why it will never become "mainstream."

 

[PruePhillip]

I really don't see it happening. How do you explain the examples from my last post in light of your view on pedophilia becoming acceptable?

I grew up in the '80s watching John Hughes and Wes Craven movies. There's Something About Mary is pretty tame in comparison. Masturbation references aren't all that new . I think porn has become more "mainstream" simply because it's become more accessible over the last few decades. It probably started becoming more accessible right around the time BetaMax and VHS came out. Though pornographic magazines have been around a lot longer than that. The most important thing about porn to this discussion though, is that it involves consenting adults. Child pornography does not. There's your big difference, I think. And the most important reason why it will never become "mainstream."

Point taken. All we have to do is get "consenting minors"
This is hard.
It will have to come through some other window.
Virtual porn is one way.
Child rights is another.
The general sexualization of children is on-going (remember when child
beauty pageants 20 years ago would outrage people? Not these days)
"No child was harmed in the making of this video" could be another.

 

[SkepticThinker]

Point taken. All we have to do is get "consenting minors"
This is hard.
It will have to come through some other window.
Virtual porn is one way.
Child rights is another.
The general sexualization of children is on-going (remember when child
beauty pageants 20 years ago would outrage people? Not these days)
"No child was harmed in the making of this video" could be another.

Minors can't consent. Adults can.

I'm one of the people who would say that children's beauty pageants are terrible. Adults ones are as well, but at least the participants can grasp the concept of it.

 

[Milton Platt]

.

Excerpted from an interesting blog by Steve Mason in the Huffington Post

"Sex is funny in that you can live without it, but not without paying a mental/physical price. It’s a simple pleasure that grows all out of proportion when it’s denied. If Mother Nature were allowed to have her way, this would be a far better place. And who’s behind all the brouhaha? God? Actually, it’s religion.

In order to run a successful religion, you need to follow just one rule: Have more members coming in than going out. One way to achieve this is by gaining control of their sex lives. Try to think of a religion that doesn’t have anything to say about sex. Get a grip on that one single, chemically driven aspect of life and you will have a stranglehold on your flock. The more they try to avoid it, the more they’re going to be drawn to it, and the more they’re going to feel like sinners, and the more they’re going to need you to save them. Tell people sucking lemons is evil and they won’t suck lemons and they won’t need you. Tell people sex is evil and you’ll have them stuck in a revolving door.

Now here’s the rub and the real reason I get so provoked by people who have been bamboozled into believing that copulation without at least 50 strings attached is anything but normal human behavior. The truth is that violence seems to be inversely proportional to the availability of sex. Remember generations of coaches who told the team to avoid love so they’d be full of hate for the big game? Look at riots in the street and what do you see? Mostly young, testosterone-filled males throwing bricks. Look at guys flying planes into buildings. Would they do it if it weren’t for the 79 virgins? And why do you suppose there’s such a premium on virgins? The male’s lack of experience leads to a lack of confidence, and that, in turn, leads to a raging fury against experience and confidence — so let’s find someone with neither. The weird part is that so many terrorists truly believe America is swimming in sex. If they only knew that it gets so much attention only because there’s so little action.

British comedian Eddie Izzard does a very funny and very insightful routine that involves God laying down the laws of mating. The dogs are told to do it doggie-style. The dogs go away happy. The cats are also told to do it doggie-style. The cats aren’t really happy about that, but when are cats really happy about anything? The salmon are told about swimming upstream, struggling over dams and crashing into rocks only to die at the end. Bummer. And finally, the humans are told they can do it pretty much anyway they like — as long as they feel guilty. So I get comments from obviously guilty readers telling me how scary sex really is and providing laundry lists of things that can go wrong while rolling in the hay. That God ever invented sex in the first place was clearly a mistake, so they create caveats that will at least make it as unpleasant as possible.

However, if anything, it’s a lack of sex that can be deadly. The British Medical Journal reported on a long-term study of nearly 1,000 men between the ages of 45 and 59. In our culture of scary sex, it’s perhaps not too surprising that the findings have not received the attention they deserve. You see, the data showed that the amount of sexual activity enjoyed by a man is directly proportional to both his health and longevity. Men who reported twice as much sex were half as likely to die prematurely.
source

​

Thoughts?

Mine is a question. If god's attitude toward sex is truly not a concoction of religious leaders, but his very own, then what is his problem with it? According to the Bible god doesn't like prostitutes, homosexuality, bestiality, consensual adultery (all adultery is bad), marrying a divorced woman, premarital sex, lust, sensuality, semen, etc. etc..

.

Well, he is described as being a jealous god........I mean, where would a god find a date?

 

[Trailblazer]

Well, he is described as being a jealous god........I mean, where would a god find a date?

God is not looking for a date. God is fully self-subsisting, and has no need for a partner.

 

[Milton Platt]

God is not looking for a date. God is fully self-subsisting, and has no need for a partner.

And yet obsesses over sex.......but yeah, one would think a god would have no need for anything, least of all sacrifices and worship.

 

[Trailblazer]

And yet obsesses over sex.......but yeah, one would think a god would have no need for anything, least of all sacrifices and worship.

God is not obsessed over sex, He just tells us to keep it zipped up more than some people want to keep it zipped up, and that is for our own good.

God has no need for sacrifices or worship. God has no need for anything.
God wants us to worship Him for our own good, not for His good.