My personal take on this (besides the teachings of the Church) is that masturbation is an act of inherent selfishness and vanity. It takes the pleasure of a sacred act meant to consecrate God and His covenat with his creation and turns it into an act of self-love for self-gratification.
To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest advantages of the Christian religion is that it teaches us to hate ourselves. That self-love is wrong and Love Of God Only is the Only True Love.
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It also staves off some cancers, stress, and to a slight degree mental illness.
Why is loving yourself, physically or figuratively, a bad thing?
Oh wait, you said it outright: You want people to spend their days hating themselves and by extension everyone else. Easier to fall for a cult when you have no self esteem or personal identity.
"To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest advantages of the Christian religion is that it teaches us to hate ourselves."
Are you trying to make yourselves look bad?
Quoth the Teacher, love thy neighbour as you love thyself. Or something along these lines. Self-hate is an aberration and it took Christianity several centuries to get rid of it. Not that we were truly succesfull, seeing as some dickwads (yes, I'm looking at you, Melkite!) still seem to believe it.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with most elements of ascetism, including sexual celibacy, as long as it serves a purpose. It cannot be a goal upon itself, that would be sick.
To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest advantages of the Christian religion is that it teaches us to hate ourselves.
I don't know about you and yourself, but I don't like this whole idea of hating myself.
If God doesn't like us choking the chicken, all he has to do is rustle up some of that omnipotence and modify us in such a way that masturbation, as opposed to intercourse, is no longer pleasurable. Kinda like the way how all he has to do if he wants to induce a pregnancy in the event that a couple has used contraception is rustle up some of that omnipotence to make the contraception fail.
...one of the greatest advantages of the Christian religion is that it teaches us to hate ourselves.
Fine, you go on hating yourself while I happily fap in the corner.
So you only see the possibilities of self worship and self hatred. I know this might shock you but maybe, just possibly maybe, there's a third option in there somewhere?
I mean, Pascal was a mathematician. He was aware of the number three. Would it hurt too much if you became aware of it as well?
Seeing how successful they have been at controlling everyone's sex lives, Christians turn to stopping masturbation.
Guess what? EVERYBODY above the age of puberty has masturbated. It's normal and natural, so don't even try to stop it. What else are young & horny people supposed to do to release sexual tension, seeing as how all premarital sex is taboo? I guess God wants us to walk around with hard-ons all day.
Trying to stop everyone from having sex is like pushing back the incoming tide with a broom. Trying to stop everyone from masturbating is like pushing back the incoming tide with a Q-tip.
Oh, and I'm just guessing, but it's possible that Pascal's comment there was sarcastic. Whether it was or not, it's not helping your cause any.
No thanks. I love Deity AND myself and still value compassion, humility & not being a blowhard....
....and I'll be over here with my Hitachi , making the kitty puuuuuuuuurrrrrr....
AND YOU CAN NEVER STOP ME! *BWWAHAHAAAAAA!*
Y'know; These guys see utter self-loathing as a smashingly fantastic thing and allegedly follow a guy who said "Love thy neighbor as you love yourself". If you put these two points together, that explains Fundies perfectly! They hate everybody!
Masturbation is having sex with someone you (hopefully) love. Sure, it's a bit selfish and self-centered, but so are weight-lifting, mammography and hairdressing, as well.
Sex is a sacred act between God and humans? You're a virgin, aren't you, dearie?
People who hate themselves, seldom have the ability to love others either.
To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest advantages of the Christian religion is that it teaches us to hate ourselves. That self-love is wrong and Love Of God Only is the Only True Love.
And this is why I will never be a christian, when you're openly saying your religion makes you hate yourself you, you've fawked up somewhere
"And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."
- Mark 12:31 (KJV)
So you're supposed to hate yourself and, if you want to follow Jesus' commands, hate your neighbor just as much.
Tell me again how Christians are ethical and non-Christians are not.
Yeah, that's not a giant red flag or anything. 'You're wrong unless you hate yourself!' This, this is why I left Christianity. It makes no sense for humankind to be created with our pleasure centers telling us to do things that are *bad* for us.
That self-love is wrong and Love Of God Only is the Only True Love.
Jesus disagrees: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-1)
"My personal take on this (besides the teachings of the Church) is that masturbation is an act of inherent selfishness and vanity. It takes the pleasure of a sacred act meant to consecrate God and His covenat with his creation and turns it into an act of self-love for self-gratification."
Either that or it's some dude giving himself a hand-job. But no, your fire and brimstone definition works fine.
Following your logic, everything is an act of inherent selfishness and vanity, including eating in a barbecue. What´s the point, anyway?
Ugh...this is one reason I turned away from Christianity...I still love and honor Jesus and his REAL teachings but I'm now a Wiccan. One advantage of Wicca is that it DOESN'T teach us to hate ourselves. Since Goddess and God created us, whyever should we hate ourselves?!
Hate Thy Neighbor award proposed
@ Dr. Shrinker: OrdinaryMelkite is a Sith...s/he deals in absolutes
Following your logic, having sex is self gratification. Or eating, for that matter. From the biology point of view, it doesn't make any difference.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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