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The thread about sexual authority got me to thinking about our basic sexual desires. The Bible states that if you look at someone in a lustful manner that you've committed fornication or adultery in your heart which is just as bad as actually having the sexual act. I completely disagree with that point of view. First of all lust is simply the physical attraction that human beings feel to varying degrees when they see someone who appeals to them. It's a perfectly normal and healthy desire and serves a purpose. Having sex without lust would be about as exciting as doing the laundry. I just looked up the word lust in the dictionary and it states: 1. A very strong craving or desire. 2. An intense sexual appetite.
I see nothing immoral about that at all. If you're out in the public somewhere and happen to see a person that you feel a strong attraction towards that feeling is going to happen whether you want it to or not. You don't actually make a decision to be attracted, it's just something that you experience. Let me clarify a few points. I'm not suggesting that I think it's just fine for a married person to commit adultery or spend hours looking at pornography. If I was married I would never cheat on my wife. I'm just stating that those feelings of attraction or lust don't just disappear because you've gotten married, they're wired into our brains.
Of course if someone is single it's only natural to be checking out people you find to be attractive. Afterall, that's how people end up getting married in the first place. Because I am single I have no guilt about lustful thoughts at all. In fact when I'm at the supermarket I probably spend more time lusting then I do shopping but that's just me. Anyway, my whole point is really that sexual attraction is natural and trying to make people feel guilty for it is ridiculous. Any thoughts?
Most organized religion thrives on making people feel guilty, so that they'll keep coming back to be "forgiven and saved". Demanding that we deny normal and natural feelings is one of the ways organized religion manipulates the sheeple into doing what the church says.
The thread about sexual authority got me to thinking about our basic sexual desires. The Bible states that if you look at someone in a lustful manner that you've committed fornication or adultery in your heart which is just as bad as actually having the sexual act. I completely disagree with that point of view. First of all lust is simply the physical attraction that human beings feel to varying degrees when they see someone who appeals to them. It's a perfectly normal and healthy desire and serves a purpose. Having sex without lust would be about as exciting as doing the laundry. I just looked up the word lust in the dictionary and it states: 1. A very strong craving or desire. 2. An intense sexual appetite.
I see nothing immoral about that at all. If you're out in the public somewhere and happen to see a person that you feel a strong attraction towards that feeling is going to happen whether you want it to or not. You don't actually make a decision to be attracted, it's just something that you experience. Let me clarify a few points. I'm not suggesting that I think it's just fine for a married person to commit adultery or spend hours looking at pornography. If I was married I would never cheat on my wife. I'm just stating that those feelings of attraction or lust don't just disappear because you've gotten married, they're wired into our brains.
Of course if someone is single it's only natural to be checking out people you find to be attractive. Afterall, that's how people end up getting married in the first place. Because I am single I have no guilt about lustful thoughts at all. In fact when I'm at the supermarket I probably spend more time lusting then I do shopping but that's just me. Anyway, my whole point is really that sexual attraction is natural and trying to make people feel guilty for it is ridiculous. Any thoughts?
Honestly...your opinion (mine, too) on the matter is irrelevant.
I don't like the idea of gravity. I'd like to fly. It doesn't much make a difference though, does it? I don't get to make that decision.
Having said that, we should probably define what it is. I had a friend that said "The first look is accident, the 2nd look is sin". We've all seen nice looking people of the opposite gender walking and couldn't help having bad thoughts about him/her. To dwell on it though is wrong.
We've all seen nice looking people of the opposite gender walking and couldn't help having bad thoughts about him/her.
I disagree that being sexually attracted to someone can be described as having "bad thoughts". The only thing that could make it bad would be if those thoughts included doing that person harm like a rapist would fantasize about. I would agree that if a person was married and practically drooling over some stranger they found attractive that it wouldn't be appropriate and would seem to indicate that they'd do more than just look if they had the chance. But for people who are single like myself drooling is perfectly acceptable as long as you don't make a mess.
I think this is yet another example of how literalism and strict black and white thinking is ridiculous. Of course people lust whether they choose to admit it or not. If my wife and I are somewhere and I see a hot woman I'll tell her flatly "Man, she's hot!" My wife will either agree or disagree with me. She'll do the same thing with guys she sees. Is it lusting? I'm sure for both of us to some extent it is but, you know, at least we're honest about it and it keeps us both realistic in terms of our likes and dislikes. I have absolutely no fear that my wife will jump to the fireman she sees in the store and I'm rather certain she feels the same way about the hot blonde I pointed out to her in the grocery store the other day.
At least we have the common decency to one another to be honest about it and I think that actually makes our relationship more resilient. This whole idea of 'lusting' being sinful is absurd and to think there's a God up there who allegedly created sexual urges but wants you to refrain from lusting is a rather arrogantly twisted monster.
Lusting is part of our human nature. The denial of that and the attempt to make one feel guilty about it is to deny who and what we are as human beings. So, yes, I think lusting is getting a bad rap.
in a world replete with insignificant others, with downright boring relationships built by competing but deficient partners, that seems perfectly alright, why bother asking why a jesus would make the remark he did - and in which context?
one need not be a prude.
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Anyway, my whole point is really that sexual attraction is natural and trying to make people feel guilty for it is ridiculous. Any thoughts?
any thoughts? any?
