Universal religious sexual taboos... How stupid can one be?

[Mindmaster]

After some meditation, I think that the only clear taboo that all religions seem to agree on is the fact that you must have sexual taboos. However, they fail to ever agree really on what these taboos are... Thus, they seem completely arbitrary. It seems as though the only purpose is create an arbitrary condition of what defines one as a socially-acceptable adult within a specific relative tribe. What are your thoughts?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It's not just a religious thing, but a culture thing. All cultures have sexual taboos, and all cultures have some sort of incest taboo. However, because things can and often vary from culture to culture, what exactly is a sexual taboo or those who are off-limits due to incest vary. Kinda like how we all have language, but the languages themselves vary, but they all have taboo words, even though the taboo words themselves will (obviously) vary.
For example, here in the West formicophilia would be considered very strange and taboo. However, in "third world" nations where there are more insects crawling around, and more "houses" that are not designed with keeping insects out in mind, you find this fetish more often.

 

[rusra02]

After some meditation, I think that the only clear taboo that all religions seem to agree on is the fact that you must have sexual taboos. However, they fail to ever agree really on what these taboos are... Thus, they seem completely arbitrary. It seems as though the only purpose is create an arbitrary condition of what defines one as a socially-acceptable adult within a specific relative tribe. What are your thoughts?

I think our Creator knows best what will make us happy. The true God's laws regarding sex within marriage has stood the test of time, IMO, while those ignoring God's standards have caused harm to themselves and others.

 

[Mindmaster]

I think our Creator knows best what will make us happy. The true God's laws regarding sex within marriage has stood the test of time, IMO, while those ignoring God's standards have caused harm to themselves and others.

There is comedy here... Really, no two faiths who "believe in God" have the same set of sexual proscriptions... If anything, this is the most defining trait between any two major religions. If they are all following God, then obviously the rules must be the same. Wait, they aren't... So, what gives? Everyone assumes their own set of permissible sexuality is spoken for as the correct way. Rarely, does anyone actually follow the rules to a tee however... Most of the "rules" of sexual engagements in a religion are so complicated that most people can't actually 100% follow... They likely will fail accidentally several times...

 

[Shadow Wolf]

The true God's laws regarding sex within marriage has stood the test of time, IMO, while those ignoring God's standards have caused harm to themselves and others.

Actually, different cultures have different forms of what we would consider marriage, and they have worked for those cultures, and they don't believe in your god either. And what we think of when we think of marriage today does not match what they thought of as marriage during "Biblical times." Some scholars have even proposed that our contemporary ideas of love is a Western concept that hasn't been around for very long, and they have studied it from this position.

 

[Mackerni]

There are studies that suggest that Christians are more likely to engage in sexual taboos than atheists. It's pretty much a given fact nowadays that everybody needs to release sexual energy. It's how you go about doing it that matters.

 

[Akivah]

There is comedy here... Really, no two faiths who "believe in God" have the same set of sexual proscriptions... If anything, this is the most defining trait between any two major religions. If they are all following God, then obviously the rules must be the same. Wait, they aren't... So, what gives? Everyone assumes their own set of permissible sexuality is spoken for as the correct way. Rarely, does anyone actually follow the rules to a tee however... Most of the "rules" of sexual engagements in a religion are so complicated that most people can't actually 100% follow... They likely will fail accidentally several times...

So we should have no traffic laws either because people will break them?

The point of having rules is not the expectation that they will always be followed by everyone for all time. It is to give guidelines for acceptable behavior.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Taboos are typically due to environmental circumstances and evolutionary pressure. For example, there's evidence that there's a biological foundation for finding incest disgusting, because of mate selection.

So on one hand, they're arbitrary and on the other, there's a biological reason for some of them.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Some scholars have even proposed that our contemporary ideas of love is a Western concept that hasn't been around for very long, and they have studied it from this position.

Well, that's rather obvious. Marriage for love is a very recent thing. Marriage, for most of human history, tended to be about social clout, property and reproduction. They were usually arranged and feelings didn't really matter.

 

[Quetzal]

It's not just a religious thing, but a culture thing. All cultures have sexual taboos, and all cultures have some sort of incest taboo.

I wonder if this is a evolutionary trait, since there are health risks involved. I have nothing to back it up, just a thought.

 

[Draka]

Societal and cultural sexual taboos seem to outnumber those found in several religions. While the Abrahamic religions most certainly have sexual taboos laid out you'd be hard pressed to find many Pagan faiths that actually have many, if any, sexual taboos laid out. Such faiths tend to have blanket advice to act in the best interest of both the self and others. So harmful sexual relations where one is a victim of another is certainly frowned upon, but you often don't see anything laid out along the lines of "don't have this kind of sex it is a no-no."

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

you'd be hard pressed to find many Pagan faiths that actually have many, if any, sexual taboos laid out.

Maybe you're just thinking of the Neopagan movement? Because pre-Christian and pre-Islamic cultures did have their own taboos and so do the remaining indigenous cultures.

 

[Draka]

Maybe you're just thinking of the Neopagan movement? Because pre-Christian and pre-Islamic cultures did have their own taboos and so do the remaining indigenous cultures.

I said you'd be hard pressed to find many, or any, sexual taboos laid out. Did you miss many? There may be some faiths that have some taboos in their general teachings, but not like the Abrahamic faiths. Not as many and certainly not as harped on. At least not to my knowledge.

 

[George-ananda]

After some meditation, I think that the only clear taboo that all religions seem to agree on is the fact that you must have sexual taboos. However, they fail to ever agree really on what these taboos are... Thus, they seem completely arbitrary. It seems as though the only purpose is create an arbitrary condition of what defines one as a socially-acceptable adult within a specific relative tribe. What are your thoughts?

Incest between close family members seems a pretty universal taboo. I want to include a taboo against sex with prepubescent children but someone might find an odd-ball religion without that taboo.

 

[Adramelek]

What I can't understand is that in certain corners of the Muslim world female genitalia mutilation is a religious practice, so the woman can't have an orgasm? Is female orgasm a sin? Why do woman have to completely cover themselves? What is it, Muslim men can't look upon the bare flesh of a woman without their hormones going into an uncontrollable rage?

 

[Rival]

Incest between close family members seems a pretty universal taboo. I want to include a taboo against sex with prepubescent children but someone might find an odd-ball religion without that taboo.

Islam?

 

[George-ananda]

Islam?

Maybe an expert on Islam can clarify?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

After some meditation, I think that the only clear taboo that all religions seem to agree on is the fact that you must have sexual taboos. However, they fail to ever agree really on what these taboos are... Thus, they seem completely arbitrary. It seems as though the only purpose is create an arbitrary condition of what defines one as a socially-acceptable adult within a specific relative tribe. What are your thoughts?

Religions are expressions of the values of their adherents. If a group of people care a lot about sex, it makes sense that their gods care a lot about sex, too.

Edit: as to the fact that the taboos are arbitrary... it's like ceremonial burial: the elaborateness of it is an expression of the significance of the thing. WHAT you do to express significance isn't as important as THAT you do it, and that you make it big in proportion to how important the thing you're ritualizing is.

 

[Rival]

Maybe an expert on Islam can clarify?

The hadith report that Muhammad consummated his marriage to Aisha when she was 9 (lunar years). So the practice in many Islamic places has been to set the marriage bar for girls at age 9 (solar years, I imagine). This is because Muhammad is seen as the perfect example, so what he did must be right.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I said you'd be hard pressed to find many, or any, sexual taboos laid out. Did you miss many? There may be some faiths that have some taboos in their general teachings, but not like the Abrahamic faiths. Not as many and certainly not as harped on. At least not to my knowledge.

I've noticed that many Neopagans have a tendency to whitewash the history and culture of pre-Abrahamic or non-Abrahamic cultures and religions, whereas cultural (including sexual) taboos are universal among humanity. That's just an objective social anthropology sort of viewpoint. Humans are social animals and we come up with rules to govern those social groups, and they stem from various things. Indigenous tribal peoples have social codes that can be just as "oppressive" as those you find in Haredi Judaism.