(March 17, 2013 at 12:18 am)teaearlgreyhot Wrote: Assuming "bad sexual desires" are those desires that would inflict harm on others if acted upon, I think it might be the case that Christianity (or any religion with draconian sexual ethics) might at least be partially to blame for people developing such desires.
I wouldn't say that. Assuming that we're talking about crimes like rape or sexual molestation, those are crimes of power, using sexual humiliation as the instrument of domination. I recall reading that many rapists are unable to consummate the sex act in the normal manner-- they cannot achieve sexual stimulation unless they're harming their victim in some way.
The attempt to repress sexual activity by Christianity (or most religions, as far as I can tell) may not work out as well as they desire, but that could be from a number of causes, and some of those can probably be pinned on the religion. There are valid questions to ask regarding sex, such as why our sex drive is similar to that of other mammals if we're only supposed to enjoy it under very limited circumstances, but that's a more general question.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
