Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Neruz]

I fail to see how porn is sad, but then again i also fail to see how sex is something shameful, so yeah.

Eating food isn't shameful. Killing people with it in deathtraps for amusement is. See where I'm getting at? It isn't the original subject so much as what is done with said subject. That is why sex is such a hot topic. People don't know how to handle it. This applies for both people very liberal about it and people very conservative about it.

I'm seriously not seeing the comparison here. If you use the eating food analogy then wouldn't pornography be watching somone else eat food?

The analogy is along the lines of sex not being anything shameful and likely isn't what people find shameful. It is how it is handled that makes it what it is. Food is an action of life. Sex is as well. Just explaining why sane people find sex shameful.

Actually it's religions fault. Take note how sex = shameful is something you only really see in cultures with Abrahamic religions.

[ChairmanPoo]

Allegedly Babylonians kept priestess-prostitutes in temples . Why did the western world get stuck with the celibate dudes with the funny hats instead?

[Aqizzar]

Actually it's religions fault. Take note how sex = shameful is something you only really see in cultures with Abrahamic religions.

China would like to have a word with you.

[Kagus]

Allegedly Babylonians kept priestess-prostitutes in temples . Why did the western world get stuck with the celibate dudes with the funny hats instead?

Take another look at those hats.

[Neruz]

Actually it's religions fault. Take note how sex = shameful is something you only really see in cultures with Abrahamic religions.

China would like to have a word with you.

Which part? The Taoists? The Confucianists? The Buddists? The Hindus? The Muslims? The Christians? The Jews? Or some of the thousands of specific cultural religions?

I'm going to assume you mean Confucianism, since that's what people usually mean when they refer to Chinese religion. And as far as i am aware Confucianism does not consider sex to be shameful. Private, most certainly, but not something to be ashamed of.

Allegedly Babylonians kept priestess-prostitutes in temples . Why did the western world get stuck with the celibate dudes with the funny hats instead?

Because the Abrahamic religions, specifically Christianity and Catholicism, gained a disproportionate amount of power during the last few thousand years and have managed to irreversibly contaminate the majority of western culture.

[Vester]

The Taoists, most likely.

Allegedly Babylonians kept priestess-prostitutes in temples . Why did the western world get stuck with the celibate dudes with the funny hats instead?

The hats are awesome.

EDIT: By which I mean, the Taoists don't find it shameful either. But I think Aqizzar is referring to communist China.

[Neruz]

Yeah, Taoism finds nothing shameful about sex, in fact Taoism encourages sex, in moderation, as it encourages everything in moderation.


As for the general attitude of Communist China, i don't know why sex has been such a taboo subject for so long (that attitude seems to have changed drastically in the past decade and continues to do so), especially considering the major Chinese religions do not 'tabooify' sex.

It should be noted that while sex is a taboo in traditional Chinese culture, it's not considered somehow shameful, merely something that is intensely private. It's also considered something that is specifically between a man and his wife and is very much tied into loyalty to the family unit and marriage.


It might not sound like a huge difference; but it's pretty important. The Chinese don't really see anything intrinsically wrong with sex that the Abrahamic religions seem to, but neither do they consider it to be a subject of discussion.



I will freely admit that the Chinese culture is a wonderful juxtaposition of contradictions at times and remains largely impenetrable to me however.

[Vester]

Wait, where are you getting that Abrahamic religions find sex shameful?

They don't say "Thou shalt not have sex", they say "Thou shalt not have sex all willy-nilly."

[Neruz]

Actually, throughout most of Christian history, marital sex has been seen as, at best, a necessary and experience of sexual pleasure itself to be sinful. If they'd worked out a way to have children without sex, they probably would have banned it entirely. (Check out Augustine and St. Ambrose.)

Interestingly Catholicism and Islam don't seem to share quite the same hatred of all things sexual, although Islam of course has it's moments...

[Jackrabbit]

I'm very much tempted to sig that Vester. But I don't think I will, I've been jumping about too much. Tauuuuunting yooooou.

[Neruz]

I feel i should probably clarify now that i'm talking about sex for recreation, not procreation. Even Christianity had to bite the bullet and sanction sex for procreational purposes. But for a very long time it condemned sex (even marital sex) if the intended goal was not a baby.

While the Catholic Church has withdrawn from these extremes it remains adamant that sex be potentially procreative. Sex is not intended for pleasure. Pleasure is merely the by-product. The Protestants are a little more forgiving but that's only a small crack in the wall, so to speak.

[Leafsnail]

You can see old stories like the story of Onan for examples of why they didn't think sex should be done if the goal wasn't procreation.  Even between man and wife.

[Kagus]

And if you look at the story of Lot, you'll see why having drunken sex with your daughters is just fine and dandy, so long as the goal is procreation.

But, of course, I'm just pulling that out of my rear.

[Hawkfrost]

Yeah, Taoism finds nothing shameful about sex, in fact Taoism encourages sex, in moderation, as it encourages everything in moderation.

I think Taoism is a wonderful religion.
Actually, personally, I find the eastern religions better than the western.


And I think this thread is drifting off-topic ever so slightly.

[Fishersalwaysdie]

Allegedly Babylonians kept priestess-prostitutes in temples . Why did the western world get stuck with the celibate dudes with the funny hats instead?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WJB-4W99W49-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=16698184135f0394ea1575f2f6e4a886