So the fall occurs after Adam and Eve cover them self up in front of God....So sin enters the world on us seeing something God has made holy, as impure....
There is more rapists in countries where sex and the human body are seen as dirty......
It is the hidden that makes it more desirable in many peoples eyes and so which is worse: People on a beach naked, or looking at a magazine or news paper with women portrayed as Barbie dolls?
I see your point, wizanda, but it's not because sex and the human body are themselves inherently dirty. They aren't, and they were never intended to be. If the Fall had never happened, who knows, we might all be walking around naked right now, and there would be nothing wrong with it!
The Fall did not occur
after Adam and Eve covered themselves....rather Adam and Eve covered themselves
after the Fall. Huge difference! Why? Because the Fall, precipitated by Adam and Eve's disobedience and rebellion, led to Adam and Eve's eyes being opened to the possibility of sin, and sin brings shame. Think about it. Why are little children so comfortable being naked, and why do we not suppress their nudity? Because, unlike adults, they are innocent and unaware of sin (most anyway).
Adam and Eve were kind of like children. Totally innocent and unaware. God, in His love and mercy, wanted them to remain that way, and that's why He told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then Satan comes along and whispers to them, if you eat it, you'll be like God. Now, Satan was actually telling them a nugget of truth. They
would be like God if they ate it, but only because they would then know what evil was. Prior to eating from the tree they had no idea what evil and sin were.
Every time I think of the story of Adam and Eve I think of a great analogy in Tolkien's
Lord of the Rings trilogy. In Lord of the Rings there are many races of people: hobbits, elves, dwarves, wizards, and, of course, men. Now what's interesting is how Tolkien repeatedly stresses the weakness of the race of men. They were easily corrupted. Why? Because when presented with knowledge and power, they didn't know how to wield that knowledge and power properly. They succumbed too easily to its dark side. Whereas other races such as the wizards and elves were better able to wield a lot of knowledge/power without succumbing to its evil side.
The same is kind of true with humans and with God. God knows the difference between good and evil. But He is able to wield that knowledge without actually succumbing to evil. We humans, on the other hand, are not able to do this. We cannot know about good and evil and not succumb to evil. So God, to make things easier for us humans, intended that we never know the difference to begin with. The expression "what you don't know won't hurt you" is especially appropriate here! If we don't know the possibility of evil and sin, how could we ever commit evil and sin? Thus God did not forbid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for arbitrary reasons....He did it out of love, to spare us.
Soo...after all that----how does this apply to nudity today? Well, because we fallen humans know the possibility of evil, and are prone to it, the naked human body has taken on not so pure and innocent connotations.
God hasn't made it into something dirty and shameful....
.we have! We are too prone to look at it and think bad thoughts, which then often leads us to do bad things. So therefore God requires clothing and modesty. Not because
He sees our naked bodies as something that should be hidden, but for our own good and protection.
