Why is religion in the business of moral policing?

[The Grand Nudger]

Just to digress slightly, this English council smashed seagull eggs a couple of years ago, what do AF members think about it?

Skyrats, fuck em.

[vorlon13]

Most any subject appended with "101" is a reference to it being the first class a person will attend on the topic. The basics and fundamentals are covered.

Math 101, English 101, Physics 101 are all the first steps in instruction in those topics.

So, Sunday School 101 would, presumably be similarly a shared body of knowledge imparted at the earliest stage of religious instruction. Items that 'everyone' knows about their religion, things they were first taught before anything else.

My error is assuming religious instruction has not devolved or even evaporated since I experienced it back in the early 60s.



Immortal Souls 101:

Immortal Souls are you, your body is merely a garment, your soul is YOU. Souls are conveyed via the breath. When you sneeze, for instance, and people say "God bless you", the impetus for that is that during a sneeze your Immortal Soul may be dislodged, as it were, from it's 'host garment', that is, your physical body. And while your Immortal Soul is dislodged from your body, you are ESPECIALLY prone to predation or influence from SATAN.

So, a quick invocation of "God bless you" will ward off SATAN and protect your Immortal Soul.

A dated (but telling) reference occurred during the sitcom All In The Family, when Edith asked if Hindus say "Buddha bless you" when someone sneezes around them. What made the line so funny is that it is, of course, absolute heresy to even think such a thing. Invoking the name of the Buddha during a sneeze would have the absolute opposite effect of invoking God!!

Also, when a person dies, you hear the phrase "gave up the ghost". This is another acknowledgement of how the soul is conveyed. The Immortal Soul, conveyed as it is upon the breath, will depart the body in the dying gasp. This was perhaps most poignantly demonstrated by Henry Ford (IANMTU) when he arranged to be with Thomas Edison as he lay dying, and Henry captured Edison's dying breath in a tightly stoppered jar.

So, where do people learn of the Immortal Soul and how it works if their instruction at Sunday School was deficient ?


The BIBLE !!


I suggest you start reading now.

[Dropship]

Another possibly valid reason for aborting might be if the father is a nasty sonofabitch who's likely to vent his spite on the kid if the mother gives birth to it.
I had first-hand experience of that myself, my parents had a shotgun wedding and I don't know if they discussed aborting me, but I had to suffer years of verbal cruelty from my evil shit of a dad all through my childhood, he once kicked me like a dog for throwing orange peel down the toilet, and he used to find fault with everything I did, and it's taken years to patch over the holes he shot in my self-confidence.
No doubt in his twisted way he blamed me for forcing him to marry my mother, whereas the blame was all his for not keeping his flies zipped up with her in the first place..

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So, where do people learn of the Immortal Soul and how it works if their instruction at Sunday School was deficient ?
The BIBLE !!
I suggest you start reading now.

I was sent to Sunday school one afternoon as a kid but it bored the krap out of me so I refused to go again..
As for the soul, yes our bodies are simply "spacesuits" for it, then when the body dies, the soul flies!
It's the final step in human evolution, when we transcend from soft squishy bodies into purely spiritual life-forms-
"In the twinkling of an eye the dead shall be raised imperishable and we shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:52)
"So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable...it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.. flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor 15:42-50)

[The Grand Nudger]

Your beliefs amount to poorly written sci-fi.  There is no soul, lol.  This was our earliest and most blundering attempt to explain what it was that animates life - what seperates living things from non-living things, and, unfortunately, we didn't have the tools to either identify or describe metabolism at the time. At least it got one thing right, flesh and blood can't inherent the "kingdom of god" - there's no kingdom to inherit. Those are merely the dreams of a poor and impoverished people yearning for a better life in the face of the crushing realization that this life will never -be- that life, for them.

You know, for a guy who doesn't truck with fundies...you're quite the literalist. I wonder what your opinion of the colored stick theory of animal husbandry might be? / shrugs

[John V]

Seems a big aspect of religion, Islam and Christianity is moral policing. You know, don't masturbate, don't watch porn and so on. Why is it these things are considered so bad according to religion? Or at least the Abrahamic ones? I don't see as long as it's not hurting one, then why is it really such a big deal?

I don't recall the bible saying much about porn and masturbation. It does say that most people should be married and have sex regularly. Works for me.

[JackRussell]

Yep, and not get divorced.

Works for many Christians too.

Everybody should escape abusive relationships, nobody should be owned.

[The Industrial Atheist]

Seems a big aspect of religion, Islam and Christianity is moral policing. You know, don't masturbate, don't watch porn and so on. Why is it these things are considered so bad according to religion? Or at least the Abrahamic ones? I don't see as long as it's not hurting one, then why is it really such a big deal?

I don't recall the bible saying much about porn and masturbation. It does say that most people should be married and have sex regularly. Works for me.

There's the part where the adulteress is about to be stoned and Jesus says that when you look lustfully at a woman that is not yours, you comit adultery in your heart.

[Drich]

Seems a big aspect of religion, Islam and Christianity is moral policing. You know, don't masturbate, don't watch porn and so on. Why is it these things are considered so bad according to religion? Or at least the Abrahamic ones? I don't see as long as it's not hurting one, then why is it really such a big deal?

Porn is bad because it desensitizes the male in most relationships.

Remember when boobs were a very big deal? if you grew up outside a big city in the 70s or 80s as a kid boobs were like the holy grail. to even see a pair semi coherently drawn was a big deal because we as kids did not know what that stuff looklike. Now remember seeing your first playboy and the perfect air brushed set in there? Now do you remember seeing jenny from down the block's set of boobs? Unless her last name was lopez I doubt they came anywhere near that perfect playboy set. Jenny's one torpedo boob bigger than the other kinda freaked people out, when they knew what perfection looked like... Now imagine if you never saw that playboy and jenny's boob was the only one you ever saw. Do you think you could be happy with that? (if she were otherwise a good kind of freak but not crazy?) Now imagine you both starting off on the same level? Seeing her stuff was awesome and her not knowing of your 'short comings' was also equally awesome for her as well. Imagine how simple and wonderful it would be to figure stuff out as you go together.... It's like you start out in grammer school, move to jr high to senior high to collage together and work on each other to become masters or Dr. of love....

But enter porn all the innocence gone. all the little quaint curiosity gone. all the exploration and sexual sharing gone... why? because at @13 when I and my buddies were trying to figure out what shape a boob should be, kids today are working on how to rebuild Sodom and Gomorrah with each other. So Imagine being on of the few porn hasn't destroyed sexually and then meeting a nice person your age, but he/she is a "level 30 shade of grey..." How long can a relationship like that last?

Not to mention Porn is all about exploring the taboo. what happens when all the legal taboos have been explored?

It's like what I say happened in the garden... God placed Adam and eve in a garden 2/3 the size of north America, and yet the story in Gen 2 has them in the center of the garden next to the tree of knowledge... Why? because I postulate that as big as the garden was, they were in it soooo long (as long as evolution needed to catch up outside the garden) that the forbidden fruit was the only mystery left.

What are society's current forbidden fruit? incest and children.

We can already see incest in just about every movie or show.. may not be a main theme but there is always a joke or reference in some way shape or form. Then what is left Children. We have already sexualized high school aged girls in society... how much more porn will it take??? because it never stays static. Sexual desire always has to change always has to grow into something more.

Porn is bad because it over matures the watcher sexually. Which can isolate the watcher and alienate potential mates. if enough people get in this mind set society shifts and you gotta wait in traiffic for "another pride" parade to sasche past your intersection down town.

[The Industrial Atheist]

[quote='It_Was_me' pid='1593989' dateline='1501383766']
Seems a big aspect of religion, Islam and Christianity is moral policing. You know, don't masturbate, don't watch porn and so on. Why is it these things are considered so bad according to religion? Or at least the Abrahamic ones? I don't see as long as it's not hurting one, then why is it really such a big deal?

Porn is bad because it desensitizes the male in most relationships.

Remember when boobs were a very big deal? if you grew up outside a big city in the 70s or 80s as a kid boobs were like the holy grail. to even see a pair semi coherently drawn was a big deal because we as kids did not know what that stuff looklike. Now remember seeing your first playboy and the perfect air brushed set in there? Now do you remember seeing jenny from down the block's set of boobs? Unless her last name was lopez I doubt they came anywhere near that perfect playboy set. Jenny's one torpedo boob bigger than the other kinda freaked people out, when they knew what perfection looked like... Now imagine if you never saw that playboy and jenny's boob was the only one you ever saw. Do you think you could be happy with that? (if she were otherwise a good kind of freak but not crazy?) Now imagine you both starting off on the same level? Seeing her stuff was awesome and her not knowing of your 'short comings' was also equally awesome for her as well. Imagine how simple and wonderful it would be to figure stuff out as you go together.... It's like you start out in grammer school, move to jr high to senior high to collage together and work on each other to become masters or Dr. of love....

[quote/]

Porn doesn't only have huge boobed women and just because you like big boobs doesn't mean those are the only kind you like.

[The Grand Nudger]

Did you ever end up telling your wife all that nonsense up above, Drich?  How, after having seen so many tits, hers were just a disappointment?  Cmon, man.

If that's why porn is supposed to be bad, then it aint bad, might be bad for you, or anyone else who can;t get it up with, whomever, I guess..though one wonders why -that- would be bad..and if it were, why god hits us with ED, lol?

There -is- a reason why christians ended up believing that nudity in general, and any exhibition thereof - particularly coitus- where bad...but it aint biblical. It;s cultural. Heres some bible porn.

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Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
for your love is more delightful than wine.
3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
your name is like perfume poured out.
No wonder the young women love you!
4 Take me away with you—let us hurry!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.
Friends

We rejoice and delight in you[b];
we will praise your love more than wine.
She

How right they are to adore you!
5 Dark am I, yet lovely,
daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar,
like the tent curtains of Solomon.[c]
6 Do not stare at me because I am dark,
because I am darkened by the sun.
My mother’s sons were angry with me
and made me take care of the vineyards;
my own vineyard I had to neglect.
7 Tell me, you whom I love,
where you graze your flock
and where you rest your sheep at midday.
Why should I be like a veiled woman
beside the flocks of your friends?
Friends

8 If you do not know, most beautiful of women,
follow the tracks of the sheep
and graze your young goats
by the tents of the shepherds.
He

9 I liken you, my darling, to a mare
among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.
10 Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,
your neck with strings of jewels.
11 We will make you earrings of gold,
studded with silver.
She

12 While the king was at his table,
my perfume spread its fragrance.
13 My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh
resting between my breasts.
14 My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms
from the vineyards of En Gedi.
He

15 How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful!
Your eyes are doves.
She

16 How handsome you are, my beloved!
Oh, how charming!
And our bed is verdant.
He

17 The beams of our house are cedars;
our rafters are firs.

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Seems like "god" beat Hustler to it..........if it's too artsy, they're going at each other in broad daylight in a field, oral, handies, hard driving - and he pulls out and give her a moneyshot to the grill (or he gives him..bit of ambiguity there, seeing as how it's a copied version of babylonian gay pron bar poem) - the whole gamut. It's a one stop smut shop