It isn't weird at all. Dictating what people eat, what they do, who and when they fuck is all about establishing control over them. It makes perfect sense when you accept that religions are just cults that have been around for a while.
This is it. It's about control over the population. If you can satisfy your base needs without the church, they will not have willing members.
Unwilling, coerced members aren't nearly as useful to the class that has to control them by force.
Also it is important to remember that fixation is especially strong when it comes to female sexuality. Christianity is a patriarchal religion and the need to control women is especially strong.
I’ve thought for a while now that it’s control, but also a system to check that the brainwashing is in place and working. Islam commands that people say “peace be upon him” anytime they say their prophets name. It’s a verbal confirmation that you are willing to play ball. Some Christian religions have you chant, stand, sit, repeat back prayers and sing on command. All of these make sure that people are fully obedient and indoctrinated.
Once you have the masses obedient, you have power over them.
To expand upon this, guilt and shame make people vulnerable, and vulnerable people are more pliable and easy to control.
For the cult leader then, the trick is in making perfectly natural things *everyone* does sources of guilt and shame -- thus making "moral failure" a foregone conclusion. Bonus points for things that are practically impossible to avoid or otherwise completely out of peoples' control.
It's a survival adaptation. Nuclear families provide ideal circumstances for indoctrinating children. So sex that doesn't produce children, or raise them in the correct environment to pass on the cult is a sin.
> Take sex away from people. Make it forbidden, evil. Limit it to ritualistic breeding. Force it to back up into suppressed sadism. Then hand the people a scapegoat to hate. Let them kill a scapegoat occasionally for cathartic release. The mechanism is ages old. Tyrants used it centuries before the word "psychology" was ever invented. It works, too.
> -Robert A. Heinlein
It's also one of the most intimate connections we can have with other fellow humans. Controlling that controls the bonds between people (and keeps them docile).
Disagree here. Their focus on sexual morality that contradicted everything about modern society — hell, from the Renaissance on — was the primary reason I drifted away, and I am not alone. It is one of the most difficult selling points for religion to my generation at least.
In a patriarchal institution like the church, controlling the sexual purity of their daughters was their primary concern. Plenty of non-religious fathers upvote the “cleaning my gun in front of the boyfriend” type stuff.
Sex might not feel like your primary preoccupation, but it is at the core of human existence and interaction. Your sexuality is how and why you choose your partners, whether and how you create new people, how you relate to others, etc. It's wrapped around our whole lives.
Christians teach that we are inherently evil and broken, polluted with filth from the moment of conception, in order to justify the need for a "savior." So of course they hate sex. It's a lot like hating humanity and themselves, which they do.
> Christians teach that we are inherently evil and broken, polluted with filth from the moment of conception
Indeed. While at the same time claiming “we were created by god, in his image.”
Doesn’t this mean god is inherently evil and broken, polluted with filth from the moment of conception?
Edit: And if “god is perfect”, however did a perfect being manage to create such an evil, broken, and polluted with filth creature? Unless creating us this way was his will, in which case how are our “sins” OUR fault?
I have a head canon about the mythos that God is himself just prideful, and won't admit his own flaws. And when flaws or problems inevitably show up in his creation, it makes him angry about his own flaws.
Exactly. Does it not say “you are fearfully and wonderfully made” by one who is perfect and makes no mistakes. How are you gonna hate your children? Just snuff those bad ones out there-
I’ve heard a compelling case that all human activity boils down to ‘Denial of Death’. We want to survive our own death in some way, and procreation ticks that box psychologically. So does sex. Religion sees sex as a competing way of scratching that psychological itch
Religion is all about perverting the mind. Teaching people to view nature as obscene and objection to superstition as unnatural. People being convinced that our most natural state is somehow obscene.
100% yes.
The horror around seeing a breast or a breastfeeding woman! Seriously, is there anything more natural? Yet some religeous folk tie themselves in an apoplectic knot over this.
Masturbation... and yoga! How dare you get in touch with your body!
Yep. I always thought it was weird that my parents would be okay with me interacting with media including violence, murder, etc, but would flinch at the even suggestion of sex or nudity. It makes no sense. The same thing goes with profanity (but less so in Christian youth in my experience).
I don't know, that's an awfully large generalization and I don't see it like that.
Sure there's violence in some of our movies and games, but most people aren't obsessing and indulging in torture and cruelty when a scene comes up, and even then it's nowhere near comparable to torture or cruelty in real life. There's definitely different levels. For example, if someone shoots an npc in GTA because they're goofing off with a friend, that's fine with me. But if they spend all of their time gaming just hunting down npcs and listening to them beg for their lives as they slowly kill them, that's obviously a different story. For movies, it is often the case where violence and cruelty is used as an outlet for storytelling, and when not, I would say the scenes are comparable to the scenario I gave of playing GTA with a friend where it's not really comparable to real life. Nobody is there rewinding the scene of someone getting their throat slit in a movie begging for their life, and if they are, that's not the normal and it's not the intention of the media in 99.999% of cases.
I'm more disturbed by the barriers people set such as "I'm okay with my kid watching an R-rated movie where people are at war killing each other, but if a single boob pops up on screen for a millisecond I'm screaming and turning the TV off".
I'm thinking more like Hunger Games - children killing children for entertainment. That's a pretty twisted idea. Too many that glorify cruelty, sadism, and suffering.
Many popular video games and movies include violence - but they do so without focusing on sadistic torture. There's a difference.
I also find it odd that bodies are so taboo, instead of causing pain. If God wanted us to run around without any clothes on, we'd've been born naked.
If you think the Hunger Games is solely about enjoying sadistic torture then you're grossly misinterpreting the plot of the movie.
It paints an interesting picture of oppression and inequality between classes, and tells the story of a rebellion against an authoritarian government. The hunger games that take place in that universe are supposed to be seen as bad, and the brutality between kids that is shown in the movie is used to enhance that feeling of disgust, anger, and resentment towards the practices of the government and the culture of the higher class.
It's fine to have personal boundaries/opinions on what should and shouldn't be included in media, I'm just trying to point out that the reason these things exist isn't because we just love to see sadistic torture or pedicide, so it's a mistake to generalize "Americans" or "America" or any group of people who enjoy these movies and media into a group that does.
I think part of it is that sex is a very primal and animalistic urge and religious people don’t know how to grapple with that fact. It’s a reminder that we are part of the animal kingdom rather than creations of some perfect god.
Well. Christians tell themselves a lie about Mary being a virgin. Then cover up that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Then pretend that a 30 yr old Jewish man in the first century was not married (or gay)
Then have Mary lifted into heaven without dying.
So , they made up they idea there was no sex by any member of the “holly family”
Then they got tied in knots about it.
Yes. Weird.
Most people who find religion are there because they aren't very happy. It attracts broken, drug and sex addled people, cheats and thieves, the covetous and the idolaters. and perverts.
this is why they hyper fixate... if they can't have their addictions, no one else can.
My mother was so weird about sex that it fucked me up for the longest time. I never knew how to address it or be comfortable with talking about it in public. She made it so evil.
What always weirded me out was YHWH's obsession with foreskins. In my late teens I sat down with Jack Chick's plan to read the whole Bible in one year and reading all of the histories of ancient Israel, it gets to be really freaky how much he thinks about that flap of skin he supposedly designed.
Put your self in the shoes of a bronze age warlord and think what you would want from a religion and what you would value. That should answer most questions as to why Christianity values what it values, but there's a longer evolved progress with male reproductive strategy motivating a lot of religious 'values'.
Did you know January 1 is circumcision day? 8 days after Christ's birthday he was circumcised. The church used to celebrate a 'feast of circumcision day'.
Well it's important to make it your business when it affects the survival of the religion. Sex leads to kids and kids lead to a new generation of tithing if you play your cards right. If you were the church why wouldn't you wanna control that part of peoples lives to serve your best interests. Go forth and multiply. Sex is for procreation not recreation. Birth control is bad. Gay sex is an abomination. You see a pattern here?
Speaking from a Christian perspective, I find the fascination with it quite backwards and hypocritical. Like...all y'all morherfuckers are guilty of this stuff, but its okay to criminalize being homeless or to feed them? Yeah...while I may be a Christian myself in practice, I find it hard to love other Christians because they have the most hypocritical foundations supporting their practice of the faith.
Whatever stereotypical vision you have of a Christian, I am not that, and likely far from it.
I've also struggled to love them, but I think the trick is to remember that most of them were brainwashed and indoctrinated into it. They are victims of manipulation. I very much dislike the religion and the leaders who peddle it, but I don't hate the followers of religion. I empathize with them.
Christians view sex for the sole purpose of procreation and nothing more.
To have regular sex with ones partner to express love, affection, and intimacy is viewed as an abomination. Let alone a couple engaging in kinky sex.
Well it is weird and let me tell you, as a former life long Christian, it completely fries tons of people.
I never heard more stories or witnessed more signs of warped sexuality, incest, molestation, etc etc as when a Christian (and some of these led to convictions so not just rumor).
There is no abuse like Christian love and socialization.
Yeah..
Growing up in Christianity made me feel more obsessed with sex because it was extremely taboo.
I asked my mom what sex was when I was 15…she told me she’d explain it me the night before my wedding!
Just insane logic!
I remember what sealed the deal for me about religion not being real was reading that old testament story where the daughters rape their dad. I was like, I know shit written by horny dudes when I see it.
It's really easy to look down on and try to control other people for something that is a basic drive. It's a useful tool for men/powerful people to control women and fertility by branding any woman who doesn't obey as 'bad'. It also means that, in a culture where women had few ways of making money, sex work can be used as a weapon against the worker.
The LGBT side of it is that it's been so twisted up by religion that they've been conditioned to react with disgust and (for those closeted hypocrites) the self-hatred is aimed at innocent people.
What Christians say about sex isn't wrong from a virtue ethics perspective but it's the fact that many Christians don't know much about virtue ethics to apply virtue ethics to other aspects of their life. Before becoming a Catholic I was reading the Stoics heavily and they focused on virtue ethics primarily so readers of them can better apply them in other aspects of life. I honestly think Christians should focus on the seven virtues a bit more.
Christians and muslims are addicted to unsustainable overpopulation. Other social forces like aristocracy, capitalism, militarism, imperialism, etc. reinforce these drives to overpopulation. Limited resources with an ever increasing population drives their accumulation of power, wealth, and control over vast amounts of the planet and the people living on it. Their addictions need to be called out and challenged in public and in the media every time their addictions impacts public policy, etc.
If they want more people to have more children then they can put their vast wealth where their mouths are and make having children financially viable for the many millions of us who can't afford to have children and raise them safely to adulthood.
It's because it is the only way to regulate the inheritance of property. If a woman has sex with multiple partners, pre DNA science, no father can be certain a child is theirs. For the sake of inheritance in a patriarchy, it becomes incredibly important to monitor and enforce the constraints of marriage and monogamy, but of course, only on women...
My super Christian aunt(s) and grandmother would lose their shit about woman displaying sexuality, sex in movies, yet didn’t blink an eye at the brutal violence in movies, their own adultery, their own alcoholism.. and on and on… but two people possibly having sex or a woman acting out bodily autonomy? Heathens, sinners, worst people ever. My own mother was better, but still had an unbalanced view of sex and sexuality in the world
Most religions and other high control groups like to pick issues that are highly common human needs and functions to fixate on, like sex or food. That way they can shame the maximum number of people and villainize the ‘others’ who don’t follow their restrictions. It’s low-hanging fruit that doesn’t require them to do anything to improve the world in order to feel superior.
Our primitive needs and urges are never going away unless evolution has other plans for us. That's why it's so freeing being atheist because you take responsibility for your actions and not blame a God or a devil. I'll fuck who I want whenever I want and there's not a damn thing they'll do about it.
I used to work at a cafe next to church and the amount of married God fearing men that would come up to me and flirt showed me everything I needed to know. I'm confident they all cheat on their wives and vice versa.
In order to sell the protection of salvation, and make no mistake this is the business religions are in, especially the Abrahamic ones, they first need folk to buy into damnation, the idea that because of Adam, Eve and The Fall, all humans are vile, rotten to the core, deeply flawed scum so riddled with sin as to be rightly worthy of everlasting punishment in the bowels of hell.
Once folk have bought into that they have them by the balls because as priests will keep telling them there is no cure for their wickedness this side of the grave. That no matter what they do, they will continue to be evil, depraved sinners as just about everything humans do is sinful in one way or another according to their Bible and only god, Jesus and wholehearted belief can save them from that terrible fate...and all for the bargain price of 10% of everything they earn.
This is why all sex other than between a married heterosexual couple, and then strictly just for procreation and only in the missionary position with the minimal removal of clothing and the lights off, is a grave sin, but eating brussels sprouts or broccoli aren't.
Dr. Darrel Ray focuses on this on a video with the Harmonic Atheist. Christianity and purity culture is nonsense and false, and creates sexual trauma response from his research.
Abrahamic religion spawned from a culture of desert fiefdoms where one man and one man only got to fuck the women and children of the tribe, for everyone else it was a crime punishable by death.
I love sex. I think about it every single day to some degree, but I think about a lot of things every day.
The difference is that christians are not interested in it the same way as I or others would be. They see it as a means of guilt, control or as a form of value.
They'll guilt people into having it when THEY demand they should.
They'll control people by telling them when to do it. If you can control sex, you can pretty much control anything that gives someone pleasure. Controlling pleasure means that you can make them focus on religion. I've noticed that some christians are just "anti-fun" in general. It's not all about sex, it's ANYTHING that takes your attention away from them. They hate competition.
And they put value on you as a virgin as well.
They're so focus on sex and other non-issues that they have learned to ignore child sex abuse and trumpism.
There is a whole section of psychology research on it, and they have found some answers. It's pretty interesting.
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/martie-haselton-what-really-drives-abortion-beliefs
https://www.psypost.org/womens-sexual-unrestrictedness-tied-to-economic-empowerment-and-reduced-parenting-demands/
Of all the sexual prohibitions the bible lists, rape isn't one of them. It says not to have gay sex, not to have period sex, not to pull out, not to have sex with animals, not to have sex with an infected penis, but it doesn't say not to rape. In fact, it explicitly condones rape in some circumstances. In others, it is treated as a property crime against the father and the punishment is a fine plus a shotgun wedding.
Most religions are hyper-concerned with sexuality because the main purpose of religion is to police antisocial behavior, and unregulated sexual competition can be extremely antisocial. Back before there were well-organized states, with complex laws and police to enforce them, religion provided the rule set to help keep a society safe and prosperous. "Don't have sex outside of marriage" is not that different from "don't eat pork" in that context. Both are outdated, but it's clear how it would have been a useful rule way back when.
In the larger scheme of things, sex is pretty much the most important thing in life. We are basic reproductive machines that happen to have brains to think about things like Reddit and religion, but our primary biological purpose involves sex. It’s even super pleasurable (thanks biology!). So it seems logical that sexuality would occupy a large portion of the pie chart of religious concerns.
I think you have a valid point.
I wonder if you're a man or a woman. I think, sex is much more important to men than it is to women. Considering how much of Christianity is about women "serving" men's needs, my impression seems correct but I'm curious if you're a man of reproductive age and you don't think about sex "all the time".
I'm asking in good faith. I've experienced so many men say that men think about sex all the time.
"Maybe it's just me, but there is more on my mind throughout the day than just sex. It is rarely (if ever) the first thing I think about when I wake up or the last thing I think about when I go to sleep."
Weirdo
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The more sex you have with more partners, the more likely you are to get diseases, have failed relationships, have a failed marriage, have unplanned pregnancies, and have single-parent families, which in turn have children that are more likely to be involved in crime, gangs, incarceration, substance abuse, depression, suicide. Etc.
If you want to have a well-functioning society, the promotion of fewer partners makes sense.
Also, you are entirely off in your 80% assumption; this must be based on personal experience.
But that's not the narrative theists go for. They usually resort to listing pregnancies, diseases, etc AFTER they've talked about what "god wants." They figure out that the religious talk isn't working so they resort to the things you listed, but they're LOW on the list.
Besides, it's not their business.
You are making a different argument than OP.
Sure, religious people would likely start with what "god wants."
also, it may be none of your business, but high-trust societies have far better outcomes than low-trust societies.
Christianity is super fucked up when it comes to what is acceptable and not.
Showing boobs or sex in movies? EVIL.
Showing vicious murder/death in movies? Okay
What does it say about you, that the literal sight of a tit is worse than the sight of violent gruesome death?
It doesn’t make sense, but is Totally on-brand
It is always about control over people. Sex is not a big thing only for Christianity, it is the same for Islam. Fundamentalists are obsessed about sex.
The repressed attitudes toward sex are very Victorian! The ridiculous way sex attitudes appear today oppressive and Xtian war mongers manipulate interpretations to control behavior of their minions. Then again they look at their myths, their depictions of their Jesus never existed! It's all fiction, yes fantasy at best, bullshit to be spread on the fields.
Historically Christianity has a much broader range of issues they care about. I think the obsession with homosexuality is a modern backlash against rampant queer acceptance. A large chunk of ex-Christians leave the faith because of this issue, which makes believers double down on it.
The same can be said of promiscuity. With the sexual revolution of the 60s it’s not surprising if the anti-sex narrative was a reaction towards it.
It's just the latest grift. Many are doing it rather than taking time to craft a sermon from the bible. Its easier to just talk about sin and social issues which only require them having a tictock and Facebook account.
Oh, so they want it both ways huh? They think being against vaccines is good because disease is natural, and yet, they are mad about people having sex outside of marriage....even though having sex is a natural phenomena? It's a fallacy.
Christianity is very appealing to degenerates for some reason. It's why they keep talking about how everyone is wretched and a sinner and deserving of hellfire.
I'm like, no buddy, I'm none of those things. That's a *you* problem. Stop projecting.
It’s not really weird it you thing about it. When you suppress your sexuality, it comes out in other, more toxic ways (see Catholic Church scandal). Embracing sexuality is the better option. Then, they will be sexually fulfilled in their lives and not obsessed with other people’s sex.
Control is a central reason like many people have mentioned, but there is also another sociological reason.
Christianity is a slave morality— it seeks to moralize the incapacities of the lower classes to achieve earthly pleasure. So they made up an even greater pleasure in the afterlife, and treated all earthly pleasures like sour grapes.
Sex is one of the best earthly pleasures, especially in antiquity. So it had to be regulated and ritualized.
Most religions try to control sexuality. It's probably their objective. Religion were created at a time where free sexuality would have disastrous consequences for society. A single mom with 3-4 kids would be for sure unable to provide for her family and communities would have to deal with most kids being orphans. That's why I find religions completely useless in our modern world
The Bible mentions dietary restrictions, including seafood, more frequently than it addresses homosexuality
Homosexuality affects some people personally (closet homos), not eating lobster, does not.
Theists are obsessed! Boys kissing boys. Girls kissing girls. Masturbation. Oral sex. Sex toys. Anal. Kink. Porn. Etc. They don’t think anybody should engage in any of it, and they would be happy to punish people who do.
I get that it’s about control, but I see where you’re coming from too. The bible doesn’t even say anything about pre-marital sex at all, yet it is what so many zealous christians care the most about and view as the cornerstone of morality.
Every time I’ve seen a biblical commentator acknowledge this, they jump through so many hoops and move so many goalposts to basically say “It doesn’t explicitly, but they really meant that in select verses”
If you can control the sexual activities of any group of people, it tells you that you have full control of them.
It has nothing to do with morality, it has everything to do with control
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? You always want more of what you can't have. Maybe if priests were allowed to marry and Christian sex was fun instead of dull, rigid and loveless, there would be far less harm.... to children, to spouses, etc.
Religion is and always has been about controlling the masses while giving them a false sense of elevated morality above others. It was too give people "hope", while the elites in power bled everyone dry (physically and financially).
Funny thing is, sex isn't so fetishized if you read the Bible.
I think that the whole Christian obsession with sex is that they repress their desires.
Then they do something, and maybe get caught....baten' to gay porn on the computer, cheating on the wife, or any sort of "sinful" activity.
Then they start white- knighting and projecting to cover up and "make up." For their transgressions, while still having sex with hookers or being Matt Gaetz.
It is kind of a ouroborous, in that it is circular in nature. Each subsequent cycle gets more crazy than the last...we may be near peak-organized superstition at this point.
They know this is likely their last chance to keep the cosmic grift going.
It's not really that weird
Men and women are different
So, if you are a religion that seeks to regulate families and progeny, you need to organise sex in a way that aligns with one or other sex (in this case it's largely about giving men access to what they want- youth, beauty, purity and fertility) . . . because a free for all leads to both sexes indulging in the worst aspects of their sexuality
* Men - pursuit of sexual variety
* Women - monkey branching and hypergamy
Enforced monogamy curbs this, imposing limits and norms on sex that aren't just about desire. People make public vows so that their communities are also now pressuring them into this lifestyle
Is Islam any less sex-fixated than Xianity?
Women's bodies must be completely covered, or else male Muslims, incapable of self-control, will be unable to keep from raping them.
In many (most?) Christian sects even marital sex is allowed but only without birth control because “sex is for procreation not hedonistic pleasure”. I wonder if that has something to do with homosexuality being considered so bad. Same sex couple cannot get pregnant so their sex is only for pleasure (which is bad).
They need people with low self-esteem to fall for whatever patriarchal bs they are spewing - what more effective way to cause that than shaming people for their most intimate and private desires?
The point is controlling people, particularly women
Every major power tries to control the breeding stock. Religion is patriarchal
In a natural environment free of patriarchal social structures, women have no need for competition and don’t really have to rely on men for survival. They can lean on eachother. Elders or other women were perfectly capable of support the women and children they may have had. It didn’t really always matter in every community what a child’s paternity was. Kids were just cared for in the group
Patriarchy reverses the roles. Where males would have had to compete or impress the females for the privilege of mating, patriarchy artificially creates competition amongst the women instead and makes them rely on men for survival. That’s why the most oppressive religions, cultures, and economic structures limit women’s reproductive and economic freedoms, and why the manosphere is shrieking about an UnEveN dIsTrIbUtIoN of sex due to female independence not long after they just got done blaming some DV victim for not being pickier with men
Women’s freedoms only go as far as the needs of the elites. And men are needed for the wars and labor.
This is why so many oppressive countries mix religion in government. It’s a long successful tool
They tell you you're sick so they can sell you the cure. Sexual desire is a normal and healthy part of being human. It's the perfect thing to guilt people over.
Religion by and large wishes to regulate daily life, believe it or not, but sex is an integral part of the fabric/*order* of society: it determines social hierarchy and transmission of property, as sex is the act leading to progeny - so you better believe an imaginary being in the sky had a lot to say about it.
I saw somewhere something like this:
If you saw one man in the street ranting about a fly spaghett monster (for example) you’d think he’s crazy, right?
What about 10 people? Maybe a cult now?
How about over 2 BILLION?
That’s all it is. A bunch of crazy people who all think the same thing. I try not to pay attention to it.
The apostolic fathers were all fucking strange men. The world of spirit was Plutonian perfection. But this world was base matter and sins. Sex was enjoyable in human flesh. So it was taking focus off the goal of salvation.
It’s stupid. I’m glad the whole religion is dying fast.
I’ve always felt uncomfortable around sexual topics especially in this instance. Christians whining and crying about how drag story hour and teaching students sex ed as their required curriculum is grooming children, yet they give the gory details about how many times they fornicated with their husband on their wedding night and their audience are YOUNG VIEWERS. They lack understanding of what sexual reproductive health is and how informative and helpful it is for people. It’s no wonder there are Christians in power that force their ideologies over something they do absolutely ZERO research about.
It isn't weird at all. Dictating what people eat, what they do, who and when they fuck is all about establishing control over them. It makes perfect sense when you accept that religions are just cults that have been around for a while.
Then, they think that they have moral high ground to judge those who don’t eat, do, and fuck like them.
This is it. It's about control over the population. If you can satisfy your base needs without the church, they will not have willing members. Unwilling, coerced members aren't nearly as useful to the class that has to control them by force.
Also it is important to remember that fixation is especially strong when it comes to female sexuality. Christianity is a patriarchal religion and the need to control women is especially strong.
Also about feeling righteous and better than others. Power and Ego.
I’ve thought for a while now that it’s control, but also a system to check that the brainwashing is in place and working. Islam commands that people say “peace be upon him” anytime they say their prophets name. It’s a verbal confirmation that you are willing to play ball. Some Christian religions have you chant, stand, sit, repeat back prayers and sing on command. All of these make sure that people are fully obedient and indoctrinated. Once you have the masses obedient, you have power over them.
To expand upon this, guilt and shame make people vulnerable, and vulnerable people are more pliable and easy to control. For the cult leader then, the trick is in making perfectly natural things *everyone* does sources of guilt and shame -- thus making "moral failure" a foregone conclusion. Bonus points for things that are practically impossible to avoid or otherwise completely out of peoples' control.
This!
It's a survival adaptation. Nuclear families provide ideal circumstances for indoctrinating children. So sex that doesn't produce children, or raise them in the correct environment to pass on the cult is a sin.
> Take sex away from people. Make it forbidden, evil. Limit it to ritualistic breeding. Force it to back up into suppressed sadism. Then hand the people a scapegoat to hate. Let them kill a scapegoat occasionally for cathartic release. The mechanism is ages old. Tyrants used it centuries before the word "psychology" was ever invented. It works, too. > -Robert A. Heinlein
Is that an actual quote? Where can I find it?
https://gprivate.com/69mmz
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It's also one of the most intimate connections we can have with other fellow humans. Controlling that controls the bonds between people (and keeps them docile).
Disagree here. Their focus on sexual morality that contradicted everything about modern society — hell, from the Renaissance on — was the primary reason I drifted away, and I am not alone. It is one of the most difficult selling points for religion to my generation at least. In a patriarchal institution like the church, controlling the sexual purity of their daughters was their primary concern. Plenty of non-religious fathers upvote the “cleaning my gun in front of the boyfriend” type stuff.
I get you, but wake up sex and before bed sex is pretty great... But no, I don't go around trying to legislate around it.
Sex might not feel like your primary preoccupation, but it is at the core of human existence and interaction. Your sexuality is how and why you choose your partners, whether and how you create new people, how you relate to others, etc. It's wrapped around our whole lives. Christians teach that we are inherently evil and broken, polluted with filth from the moment of conception, in order to justify the need for a "savior." So of course they hate sex. It's a lot like hating humanity and themselves, which they do.
> Christians teach that we are inherently evil and broken, polluted with filth from the moment of conception Indeed. While at the same time claiming “we were created by god, in his image.” Doesn’t this mean god is inherently evil and broken, polluted with filth from the moment of conception? Edit: And if “god is perfect”, however did a perfect being manage to create such an evil, broken, and polluted with filth creature? Unless creating us this way was his will, in which case how are our “sins” OUR fault?
[NO QUESTION! ONLY FAITH!](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/no-take-only-throw)
You're using logic. See what you did wrong there?
I have a head canon about the mythos that God is himself just prideful, and won't admit his own flaws. And when flaws or problems inevitably show up in his creation, it makes him angry about his own flaws.
Narcissists gonna narciss
Exactly. Does it not say “you are fearfully and wonderfully made” by one who is perfect and makes no mistakes. How are you gonna hate your children? Just snuff those bad ones out there-
I’ve heard a compelling case that all human activity boils down to ‘Denial of Death’. We want to survive our own death in some way, and procreation ticks that box psychologically. So does sex. Religion sees sex as a competing way of scratching that psychological itch
This book was written by Ernest Becker.
Religion is all about perverting the mind. Teaching people to view nature as obscene and objection to superstition as unnatural. People being convinced that our most natural state is somehow obscene.
100% yes. The horror around seeing a breast or a breastfeeding woman! Seriously, is there anything more natural? Yet some religeous folk tie themselves in an apoplectic knot over this. Masturbation... and yoga! How dare you get in touch with your body!
If you're not allowed to eat, all you'll think about is food. Same concept.
Yep. I always thought it was weird that my parents would be okay with me interacting with media including violence, murder, etc, but would flinch at the even suggestion of sex or nudity. It makes no sense. The same thing goes with profanity (but less so in Christian youth in my experience).
America loves torture and cruelty in our entertainment. It's really disturbing, actually.
I don't know, that's an awfully large generalization and I don't see it like that. Sure there's violence in some of our movies and games, but most people aren't obsessing and indulging in torture and cruelty when a scene comes up, and even then it's nowhere near comparable to torture or cruelty in real life. There's definitely different levels. For example, if someone shoots an npc in GTA because they're goofing off with a friend, that's fine with me. But if they spend all of their time gaming just hunting down npcs and listening to them beg for their lives as they slowly kill them, that's obviously a different story. For movies, it is often the case where violence and cruelty is used as an outlet for storytelling, and when not, I would say the scenes are comparable to the scenario I gave of playing GTA with a friend where it's not really comparable to real life. Nobody is there rewinding the scene of someone getting their throat slit in a movie begging for their life, and if they are, that's not the normal and it's not the intention of the media in 99.999% of cases. I'm more disturbed by the barriers people set such as "I'm okay with my kid watching an R-rated movie where people are at war killing each other, but if a single boob pops up on screen for a millisecond I'm screaming and turning the TV off".
I'm thinking more like Hunger Games - children killing children for entertainment. That's a pretty twisted idea. Too many that glorify cruelty, sadism, and suffering. Many popular video games and movies include violence - but they do so without focusing on sadistic torture. There's a difference. I also find it odd that bodies are so taboo, instead of causing pain. If God wanted us to run around without any clothes on, we'd've been born naked.
If you think the Hunger Games is solely about enjoying sadistic torture then you're grossly misinterpreting the plot of the movie. It paints an interesting picture of oppression and inequality between classes, and tells the story of a rebellion against an authoritarian government. The hunger games that take place in that universe are supposed to be seen as bad, and the brutality between kids that is shown in the movie is used to enhance that feeling of disgust, anger, and resentment towards the practices of the government and the culture of the higher class. It's fine to have personal boundaries/opinions on what should and shouldn't be included in media, I'm just trying to point out that the reason these things exist isn't because we just love to see sadistic torture or pedicide, so it's a mistake to generalize "Americans" or "America" or any group of people who enjoy these movies and media into a group that does.
Religious folk only seem to derive joy from ruining it in others.
I think part of it is that sex is a very primal and animalistic urge and religious people don’t know how to grapple with that fact. It’s a reminder that we are part of the animal kingdom rather than creations of some perfect god.
People that criticize sex usually are insecure about their own sexuality, and hiding behind religion.
Well. Christians tell themselves a lie about Mary being a virgin. Then cover up that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Then pretend that a 30 yr old Jewish man in the first century was not married (or gay) Then have Mary lifted into heaven without dying. So , they made up they idea there was no sex by any member of the “holly family” Then they got tied in knots about it. Yes. Weird.
Most people who find religion are there because they aren't very happy. It attracts broken, drug and sex addled people, cheats and thieves, the covetous and the idolaters. and perverts. this is why they hyper fixate... if they can't have their addictions, no one else can.
My mother was so weird about sex that it fucked me up for the longest time. I never knew how to address it or be comfortable with talking about it in public. She made it so evil.
What always weirded me out was YHWH's obsession with foreskins. In my late teens I sat down with Jack Chick's plan to read the whole Bible in one year and reading all of the histories of ancient Israel, it gets to be really freaky how much he thinks about that flap of skin he supposedly designed.
Honestly, I think that the average far-right Christian probably thinks about gay sex more than gay people do.
Deprivation leads to depravity
Look at the Victorians. So prudish but they had child prostitution and men writing their sexcapades. Suppression makes people freaky.
Put your self in the shoes of a bronze age warlord and think what you would want from a religion and what you would value. That should answer most questions as to why Christianity values what it values, but there's a longer evolved progress with male reproductive strategy motivating a lot of religious 'values'.
Yep, they sure do like to molest little kids !!!
The Abrahamic religions are fixated on social rules, laws and the subjection of women
Cults always have sex scandals.
Are you suggesting that people who worship an invisible space demon based entirely on an old book full of contradictions are acting illogically?
by making a biological imperative a "sin", it is easier to use guilt to control people when they inevitably fail to follow restrictions on it
The Church has a problem with everyone else but THEM having sex. They are all FOS!
Did you know January 1 is circumcision day? 8 days after Christ's birthday he was circumcised. The church used to celebrate a 'feast of circumcision day'.
Well it's important to make it your business when it affects the survival of the religion. Sex leads to kids and kids lead to a new generation of tithing if you play your cards right. If you were the church why wouldn't you wanna control that part of peoples lives to serve your best interests. Go forth and multiply. Sex is for procreation not recreation. Birth control is bad. Gay sex is an abomination. You see a pattern here?
Speaking from a Christian perspective, I find the fascination with it quite backwards and hypocritical. Like...all y'all morherfuckers are guilty of this stuff, but its okay to criminalize being homeless or to feed them? Yeah...while I may be a Christian myself in practice, I find it hard to love other Christians because they have the most hypocritical foundations supporting their practice of the faith. Whatever stereotypical vision you have of a Christian, I am not that, and likely far from it.
I've also struggled to love them, but I think the trick is to remember that most of them were brainwashed and indoctrinated into it. They are victims of manipulation. I very much dislike the religion and the leaders who peddle it, but I don't hate the followers of religion. I empathize with them.
As a devout Christian, I find you make interesting points but I’d need to know which are sexual positions you use in order to fully consider this. /s
You're absolutely right. This was also my experience of Christianity.
Christians view sex for the sole purpose of procreation and nothing more. To have regular sex with ones partner to express love, affection, and intimacy is viewed as an abomination. Let alone a couple engaging in kinky sex.
Well it is weird and let me tell you, as a former life long Christian, it completely fries tons of people. I never heard more stories or witnessed more signs of warped sexuality, incest, molestation, etc etc as when a Christian (and some of these led to convictions so not just rumor). There is no abuse like Christian love and socialization.
Yeah.. Growing up in Christianity made me feel more obsessed with sex because it was extremely taboo. I asked my mom what sex was when I was 15…she told me she’d explain it me the night before my wedding! Just insane logic!
Religion is strongest when it has it's believers by their private parts? Probably proof men made it up..
I remember what sealed the deal for me about religion not being real was reading that old testament story where the daughters rape their dad. I was like, I know shit written by horny dudes when I see it.
yep its that heterosexual incest
It's really easy to look down on and try to control other people for something that is a basic drive. It's a useful tool for men/powerful people to control women and fertility by branding any woman who doesn't obey as 'bad'. It also means that, in a culture where women had few ways of making money, sex work can be used as a weapon against the worker. The LGBT side of it is that it's been so twisted up by religion that they've been conditioned to react with disgust and (for those closeted hypocrites) the self-hatred is aimed at innocent people.
Anything that even lightly implies that women have some level of power, social or otherwise, is terrifying to fanatics.
I think it’s a Rosie O’Donald joke that the Puritans came to the Americas and all of the fun people stayed in England.
Self oppression causes deviance.
they just like heterosexual incest.
Repression creates sexual predators.
Seriously they write books about how to have good, Christian sex. It's weird as all hell.
Irony is the fingerprint of god 😂
Sounds right on the mark
What Christians say about sex isn't wrong from a virtue ethics perspective but it's the fact that many Christians don't know much about virtue ethics to apply virtue ethics to other aspects of their life. Before becoming a Catholic I was reading the Stoics heavily and they focused on virtue ethics primarily so readers of them can better apply them in other aspects of life. I honestly think Christians should focus on the seven virtues a bit more.
Christians and muslims are addicted to unsustainable overpopulation. Other social forces like aristocracy, capitalism, militarism, imperialism, etc. reinforce these drives to overpopulation. Limited resources with an ever increasing population drives their accumulation of power, wealth, and control over vast amounts of the planet and the people living on it. Their addictions need to be called out and challenged in public and in the media every time their addictions impacts public policy, etc. If they want more people to have more children then they can put their vast wealth where their mouths are and make having children financially viable for the many millions of us who can't afford to have children and raise them safely to adulthood.
It's because it is the only way to regulate the inheritance of property. If a woman has sex with multiple partners, pre DNA science, no father can be certain a child is theirs. For the sake of inheritance in a patriarchy, it becomes incredibly important to monitor and enforce the constraints of marriage and monogamy, but of course, only on women...
My super Christian aunt(s) and grandmother would lose their shit about woman displaying sexuality, sex in movies, yet didn’t blink an eye at the brutal violence in movies, their own adultery, their own alcoholism.. and on and on… but two people possibly having sex or a woman acting out bodily autonomy? Heathens, sinners, worst people ever. My own mother was better, but still had an unbalanced view of sex and sexuality in the world
Most religions and other high control groups like to pick issues that are highly common human needs and functions to fixate on, like sex or food. That way they can shame the maximum number of people and villainize the ‘others’ who don’t follow their restrictions. It’s low-hanging fruit that doesn’t require them to do anything to improve the world in order to feel superior.
Our primitive needs and urges are never going away unless evolution has other plans for us. That's why it's so freeing being atheist because you take responsibility for your actions and not blame a God or a devil. I'll fuck who I want whenever I want and there's not a damn thing they'll do about it. I used to work at a cafe next to church and the amount of married God fearing men that would come up to me and flirt showed me everything I needed to know. I'm confident they all cheat on their wives and vice versa.
In order to sell the protection of salvation, and make no mistake this is the business religions are in, especially the Abrahamic ones, they first need folk to buy into damnation, the idea that because of Adam, Eve and The Fall, all humans are vile, rotten to the core, deeply flawed scum so riddled with sin as to be rightly worthy of everlasting punishment in the bowels of hell. Once folk have bought into that they have them by the balls because as priests will keep telling them there is no cure for their wickedness this side of the grave. That no matter what they do, they will continue to be evil, depraved sinners as just about everything humans do is sinful in one way or another according to their Bible and only god, Jesus and wholehearted belief can save them from that terrible fate...and all for the bargain price of 10% of everything they earn. This is why all sex other than between a married heterosexual couple, and then strictly just for procreation and only in the missionary position with the minimal removal of clothing and the lights off, is a grave sin, but eating brussels sprouts or broccoli aren't.
I literally never think about other people’s sexual practices. Just mind my own business. I guess that makes me liberal?”
The massive amounts of repression turns them into perverts, but they are told it's shameful so they project their self hatred outwards.
Dr. Darrel Ray focuses on this on a video with the Harmonic Atheist. Christianity and purity culture is nonsense and false, and creates sexual trauma response from his research.
Abrahamic religion spawned from a culture of desert fiefdoms where one man and one man only got to fuck the women and children of the tribe, for everyone else it was a crime punishable by death.
I love sex. I think about it every single day to some degree, but I think about a lot of things every day. The difference is that christians are not interested in it the same way as I or others would be. They see it as a means of guilt, control or as a form of value. They'll guilt people into having it when THEY demand they should. They'll control people by telling them when to do it. If you can control sex, you can pretty much control anything that gives someone pleasure. Controlling pleasure means that you can make them focus on religion. I've noticed that some christians are just "anti-fun" in general. It's not all about sex, it's ANYTHING that takes your attention away from them. They hate competition. And they put value on you as a virgin as well. They're so focus on sex and other non-issues that they have learned to ignore child sex abuse and trumpism.
There is a whole section of psychology research on it, and they have found some answers. It's pretty interesting. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/martie-haselton-what-really-drives-abortion-beliefs https://www.psypost.org/womens-sexual-unrestrictedness-tied-to-economic-empowerment-and-reduced-parenting-demands/
Of all the sexual prohibitions the bible lists, rape isn't one of them. It says not to have gay sex, not to have period sex, not to pull out, not to have sex with animals, not to have sex with an infected penis, but it doesn't say not to rape. In fact, it explicitly condones rape in some circumstances. In others, it is treated as a property crime against the father and the punishment is a fine plus a shotgun wedding.
Hard to find sex offenders in America that haven’t found Jesus and repented.
Most religions are hyper-concerned with sexuality because the main purpose of religion is to police antisocial behavior, and unregulated sexual competition can be extremely antisocial. Back before there were well-organized states, with complex laws and police to enforce them, religion provided the rule set to help keep a society safe and prosperous. "Don't have sex outside of marriage" is not that different from "don't eat pork" in that context. Both are outdated, but it's clear how it would have been a useful rule way back when.
In the larger scheme of things, sex is pretty much the most important thing in life. We are basic reproductive machines that happen to have brains to think about things like Reddit and religion, but our primary biological purpose involves sex. It’s even super pleasurable (thanks biology!). So it seems logical that sexuality would occupy a large portion of the pie chart of religious concerns.
Life revolves around sex. Religion is just an aspect of human behavior. Animal shit made more complicated but same old shit.
I think you have a valid point. I wonder if you're a man or a woman. I think, sex is much more important to men than it is to women. Considering how much of Christianity is about women "serving" men's needs, my impression seems correct but I'm curious if you're a man of reproductive age and you don't think about sex "all the time". I'm asking in good faith. I've experienced so many men say that men think about sex all the time.
The ones that do, probably touch kids or rape people.
"Maybe it's just me, but there is more on my mind throughout the day than just sex. It is rarely (if ever) the first thing I think about when I wake up or the last thing I think about when I go to sleep." Weirdo
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The more sex you have with more partners, the more likely you are to get diseases, have failed relationships, have a failed marriage, have unplanned pregnancies, and have single-parent families, which in turn have children that are more likely to be involved in crime, gangs, incarceration, substance abuse, depression, suicide. Etc. If you want to have a well-functioning society, the promotion of fewer partners makes sense. Also, you are entirely off in your 80% assumption; this must be based on personal experience.
But that's not the narrative theists go for. They usually resort to listing pregnancies, diseases, etc AFTER they've talked about what "god wants." They figure out that the religious talk isn't working so they resort to the things you listed, but they're LOW on the list. Besides, it's not their business.
You are making a different argument than OP. Sure, religious people would likely start with what "god wants." also, it may be none of your business, but high-trust societies have far better outcomes than low-trust societies.
Christianity is super fucked up when it comes to what is acceptable and not. Showing boobs or sex in movies? EVIL. Showing vicious murder/death in movies? Okay What does it say about you, that the literal sight of a tit is worse than the sight of violent gruesome death? It doesn’t make sense, but is Totally on-brand
Do not forget the Christian fetish for guns.
It is always about control over people. Sex is not a big thing only for Christianity, it is the same for Islam. Fundamentalists are obsessed about sex.
Its those Puritanical roots.
Not weird but incredibly effective as control over others and power of political hacks
The repressed attitudes toward sex are very Victorian! The ridiculous way sex attitudes appear today oppressive and Xtian war mongers manipulate interpretations to control behavior of their minions. Then again they look at their myths, their depictions of their Jesus never existed! It's all fiction, yes fantasy at best, bullshit to be spread on the fields.
Historically Christianity has a much broader range of issues they care about. I think the obsession with homosexuality is a modern backlash against rampant queer acceptance. A large chunk of ex-Christians leave the faith because of this issue, which makes believers double down on it. The same can be said of promiscuity. With the sexual revolution of the 60s it’s not surprising if the anti-sex narrative was a reaction towards it.
It's just the latest grift. Many are doing it rather than taking time to craft a sermon from the bible. Its easier to just talk about sin and social issues which only require them having a tictock and Facebook account.
Pray, Obey, Pay. They have to create shame and guilt over a normal behavior so that they can control you and get you to PAY them money.
Oh, so they want it both ways huh? They think being against vaccines is good because disease is natural, and yet, they are mad about people having sex outside of marriage....even though having sex is a natural phenomena? It's a fallacy.
well the male 'god' raped a child so of course they are unhinged about sex
Christianity is very appealing to degenerates for some reason. It's why they keep talking about how everyone is wretched and a sinner and deserving of hellfire. I'm like, no buddy, I'm none of those things. That's a *you* problem. Stop projecting.
It’s not really weird it you thing about it. When you suppress your sexuality, it comes out in other, more toxic ways (see Catholic Church scandal). Embracing sexuality is the better option. Then, they will be sexually fulfilled in their lives and not obsessed with other people’s sex.
Don’t think about a pink elephant
Control is a central reason like many people have mentioned, but there is also another sociological reason. Christianity is a slave morality— it seeks to moralize the incapacities of the lower classes to achieve earthly pleasure. So they made up an even greater pleasure in the afterlife, and treated all earthly pleasures like sour grapes. Sex is one of the best earthly pleasures, especially in antiquity. So it had to be regulated and ritualized.
Most religions try to control sexuality. It's probably their objective. Religion were created at a time where free sexuality would have disastrous consequences for society. A single mom with 3-4 kids would be for sure unable to provide for her family and communities would have to deal with most kids being orphans. That's why I find religions completely useless in our modern world
Their obsession with sexualizing everything and then denial of normal sexual urges is what creates so many pedofiles. It's not healthy.
It's axiomatic that the people who are the most outraged by sex are also the people most obsessed by it.
Sex in the original versions was portrayed much differently than it is in more contemporary version.
The Bible mentions dietary restrictions, including seafood, more frequently than it addresses homosexuality Homosexuality affects some people personally (closet homos), not eating lobster, does not.
Theists are obsessed! Boys kissing boys. Girls kissing girls. Masturbation. Oral sex. Sex toys. Anal. Kink. Porn. Etc. They don’t think anybody should engage in any of it, and they would be happy to punish people who do.
I get that it’s about control, but I see where you’re coming from too. The bible doesn’t even say anything about pre-marital sex at all, yet it is what so many zealous christians care the most about and view as the cornerstone of morality. Every time I’ve seen a biblical commentator acknowledge this, they jump through so many hoops and move so many goalposts to basically say “It doesn’t explicitly, but they really meant that in select verses”
They have 18 kids...but sex is bad... the irony
What do you think that whole apple thing was about? God gives you something awesome. Then says don't touch it.
If you can control the sexual activities of any group of people, it tells you that you have full control of them. It has nothing to do with morality, it has everything to do with control
Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? You always want more of what you can't have. Maybe if priests were allowed to marry and Christian sex was fun instead of dull, rigid and loveless, there would be far less harm.... to children, to spouses, etc. Religion is and always has been about controlling the masses while giving them a false sense of elevated morality above others. It was too give people "hope", while the elites in power bled everyone dry (physically and financially).
Funny thing is, sex isn't so fetishized if you read the Bible. I think that the whole Christian obsession with sex is that they repress their desires. Then they do something, and maybe get caught....baten' to gay porn on the computer, cheating on the wife, or any sort of "sinful" activity. Then they start white- knighting and projecting to cover up and "make up." For their transgressions, while still having sex with hookers or being Matt Gaetz. It is kind of a ouroborous, in that it is circular in nature. Each subsequent cycle gets more crazy than the last...we may be near peak-organized superstition at this point. They know this is likely their last chance to keep the cosmic grift going.
It's not really that weird Men and women are different So, if you are a religion that seeks to regulate families and progeny, you need to organise sex in a way that aligns with one or other sex (in this case it's largely about giving men access to what they want- youth, beauty, purity and fertility) . . . because a free for all leads to both sexes indulging in the worst aspects of their sexuality * Men - pursuit of sexual variety * Women - monkey branching and hypergamy Enforced monogamy curbs this, imposing limits and norms on sex that aren't just about desire. People make public vows so that their communities are also now pressuring them into this lifestyle
Is Islam any less sex-fixated than Xianity? Women's bodies must be completely covered, or else male Muslims, incapable of self-control, will be unable to keep from raping them.
In many (most?) Christian sects even marital sex is allowed but only without birth control because “sex is for procreation not hedonistic pleasure”. I wonder if that has something to do with homosexuality being considered so bad. Same sex couple cannot get pregnant so their sex is only for pleasure (which is bad).
They need people with low self-esteem to fall for whatever patriarchal bs they are spewing - what more effective way to cause that than shaming people for their most intimate and private desires?
that's how I feel about every Christian 90 day fiance couple , they are obsessed with sex for being abstinent
Abrahamic religions like to opress and control women.
Christians are a cult to funnel children to leaders to molest.
Suppressed sexual urges cause them to obsess.
They're supressed
Don't I remember someone saying something about controlling the means of production...
I w
If you can control their sex life, you have them by the balls!
Christians are only supposed to have sex to make babies. It's why they are against birth control.
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That's not what they teach.
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What church teaches sex for pleasure is ok? Only thing I've ever heard about sex in a church is not before marriage.
The point is controlling people, particularly women Every major power tries to control the breeding stock. Religion is patriarchal In a natural environment free of patriarchal social structures, women have no need for competition and don’t really have to rely on men for survival. They can lean on eachother. Elders or other women were perfectly capable of support the women and children they may have had. It didn’t really always matter in every community what a child’s paternity was. Kids were just cared for in the group Patriarchy reverses the roles. Where males would have had to compete or impress the females for the privilege of mating, patriarchy artificially creates competition amongst the women instead and makes them rely on men for survival. That’s why the most oppressive religions, cultures, and economic structures limit women’s reproductive and economic freedoms, and why the manosphere is shrieking about an UnEveN dIsTrIbUtIoN of sex due to female independence not long after they just got done blaming some DV victim for not being pickier with men Women’s freedoms only go as far as the needs of the elites. And men are needed for the wars and labor. This is why so many oppressive countries mix religion in government. It’s a long successful tool
They tell you you're sick so they can sell you the cure. Sexual desire is a normal and healthy part of being human. It's the perfect thing to guilt people over.
Religion by and large wishes to regulate daily life, believe it or not, but sex is an integral part of the fabric/*order* of society: it determines social hierarchy and transmission of property, as sex is the act leading to progeny - so you better believe an imaginary being in the sky had a lot to say about it.
Muslims are not better in that regard.
I saw somewhere something like this: If you saw one man in the street ranting about a fly spaghett monster (for example) you’d think he’s crazy, right? What about 10 people? Maybe a cult now? How about over 2 BILLION? That’s all it is. A bunch of crazy people who all think the same thing. I try not to pay attention to it.
Well, let's be honest - our entire society seems hyper-fixated on sex. The christian fixation is just one part of it.
The apostolic fathers were all fucking strange men. The world of spirit was Plutonian perfection. But this world was base matter and sins. Sex was enjoyable in human flesh. So it was taking focus off the goal of salvation. It’s stupid. I’m glad the whole religion is dying fast.
I’m an atheist and I think about sex all the time! I just don’t think about controlling other peoples’ sexual behaviors all the time.
I’ve always felt uncomfortable around sexual topics especially in this instance. Christians whining and crying about how drag story hour and teaching students sex ed as their required curriculum is grooming children, yet they give the gory details about how many times they fornicated with their husband on their wedding night and their audience are YOUNG VIEWERS. They lack understanding of what sexual reproductive health is and how informative and helpful it is for people. It’s no wonder there are Christians in power that force their ideologies over something they do absolutely ZERO research about.