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

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
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?
Female genital mutilation is a pre-islamic practice that began thousands of years ago in the Nile valley that persists down to this day, and is practiced in that same area by indigenous religions, Christians, and Muslims today.
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
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.
This does strike us modern western people as amazing. A lunar year is shorter than a solar year so Aisha was about 8. What do Muslims feel is the reasoning behind this practice?

Any Muslims out there are welcomed to comment.
 
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Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
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.

Why is it so frightening if we self-select? Young people are born capable of fulfilling any sexual role they can think of without bias. It's the bias that is taught to them, and then a selection of limited options are presented on the basis of good behavior it isn't what they might pick if it were not forced on them. For me, I am very curious in terms of psychological impact of this -- if one is conditioned a particular way does one really enjoy being that way? It is possible that the doctrines and personal preference occasionally mesh, but I think this is a frightening proposition for modern religion. It is so much more about control than anything important -- once you have controlled someones sexuality (their strongest form of expression likely) you set up the precedent that maybe you have authority of all of the other means of expression. You see twinges of this everywhere... various groups bigoted vs homosexuals, etc. Basically, this manipulation of the sexual current trickles into what is acceptable for science, art, and nearly anything else -- don't you find this troubling?

For example, I find it odd that even Atheists are following another "tribes" rules on these things in most cases. That demonstrates the power of this sort of manipulation more than anything.
 

Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
"Sex is bad, m'kay?"

- Religion

Nah, it is no where near this simple. Sex is encouraged as long as you are playing by the tribal rules -- sex makes more followers... They want you to have lots of them new candidates... It is the most common way for religion to spread. :)
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
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.
Laws and taboos are not the same thing, nor are they interchangeable. Laws are socially binding and have legal consequences, taboos are things you should not to and may have social consequences if discovered.
I wonder if this is a evolutionary trait, since there are health risks involved. I have nothing to back it up, just a thought.
It's difficult to tell given that incest taboos are found throughout, but what is defined as incest varies greatly. Such as, first cousin pairing was not considered incest until very recent and very contemporary times, and even in some places sibling pairing was not considered incest.
you'd be hard pressed to find many Pagan faiths that actually have many, if any, sexual taboos laid out.
They had them. Sexual taboos are universally found, although what is defined as taboo and how many taboo sex acts are can greatly and widely vary.
"Sex is bad, m'kay?"

- Religion
The Jewish religion, and many other religions, do not agree.
 

Adramelek

Setian
Premium Member
I think we all could agree that child sex abuse is wrong. A couple of months ago a "man" was arrested here in Tulsa for the death of his girlfriends 1 year 8 month old daughter. It was found that he also sexually abused the infant. Now that is what I call sexual perversion and f****** evil. I don't need any kind of religious morality to point that out to me.
 
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Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I think we all could agree that child sex abuse is wrong. A couple of months ago a "man" was arrested here in Tulsa for the death of his girlfriends 1 year 8 month old daughter. It was found that he also sexually abused the infant. Now that is what I call sexual perversion and f****** evil.

This isn't a taboo - this is just abuse. It's important to understand that exploiting and abusing others isn't a part of normal sexual behavior -- it is a part of psychosis. :)
 

gsa

Well-Known Member
I think we all could agree that child sex abuse is wrong. A couple of months ago a "man" was arrested here in Tulsa for the death of his girlfriends 1 year 8 month old daughter. It was found that he also sexually abused the infant. Now that is what I call sexual perversion and f****** evil.

Not all religions, or at least sects within given religions, agree on this. While I think that you would be hard pressed to find anything apart from a deviant sex cult that supported sex with infants, traditional religions across the world approved of marriage (and hence sex) to post-pubescent females. One religion in particular has a history of fairly low standards in this area, but it isn't like its Abrahamic cousins were much better historically. And the same with traditional ethnic religions the world over.
 

Adramelek

Setian
Premium Member
I call it that darker part of humanity that most of us want to pretend that "of course their is something just not-human about him because no human would do that." It's not evil, it's human, and we humans have some pretty nasty habits, qualities, and characteristics.

Just as other animals kill and eat their young. Yes, we humans are capable of being just as equally cruel.
 

Brickjectivity

wind and rain touch not this brain
Staff member
Premium Member
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? :)
Its not even a religious question. The search for universal rules is one that has only met with mediocre success. In terms of psychological development...its because humanity is a mess. Its not the rules but humanity that is arbitrary. We are never happy for long. We want rules, but we hate them. Also we are born perceiving the world in terms of good and evil with no grey in between, and we only perceive grey as we mature. Until we are grown we perceive any displeasure as an evil, and we associate punishment with guilt. Therefore the religions have their hands full just trying to make sense of things, because things don't make sense.
 

Akivah

Well-Known Member
This isn't a taboo - this is just abuse. It's important to understand that exploiting and abusing others isn't a part of normal sexual behavior -- it is a part of psychosis. :)

You're imposing your views on his actions. Quoting you, he could be self-selecting.
 

cambridge79

Active Member
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 in the past God was the best birth control they can provide for themselves, just like they used him to stop people from eating things that were considered bad for them. How can you stop people from having sex outside marriage better than telling them that someone who can punish them forever is always watching them and don't like it? Now we've pills, condoms and divorce, we don't need him anymore for that reason.

Funny thing, apparently in the past if you married a 12 years old girl and had sex with her god was totally ok with it.
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
What's funny is that Mary is always portrayed as a woman. That's not how Israel rolled. She was most likely a tween.
Well she must by definition have been old enough to be a mother, so I don't have a problem really with that as the culture of the times. (Plus she was a virgin selected by God, supposedly by some.) My comment was about Mohammed and the prepubescent girl mentioned in the post I was replying to.
 
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