masturbation

[Magisterium]

Whoa whoa! smiting people for practicing contraception? I hardly see that as a capital offense . What if he kept the seed in a dish or in a special jar for safe keeping? Would God have smitten him then? See people in the olden days didn't think of these things.

That's funny, I like your response. I thought it was all fun and games as well untill I started reading... This is nothing new.. We're talking Genesis here. The Jews new this long before gentiles like me learned that marrying siblings was a bad idea 2000 years ago... What's interesting about your response though, is that In our society, our reasoning is supreme. If it seems kinda odd to us, we can just dismiss it. In our reasoning, we quantify all sin by it's apparent outcome. Murder and rape are high up there because we see the grief and pain, but abortion is negligable to some because "it doesn;t look like a person yet"... I guess divine reasoning in this matter eludes my limited understanding, but I try to repect the boundary precisely for this reason.

 

[ReUsAbLePhEoNiX]

I think people dwell on it too much, the more you try to push it away the more powerful it becomes. ( maybe celebicy would be a good example of this)

I look at it like the necessity of haveing to go to the bathroom, get it over with ASAP and move on to better things. The desire to reproduce is God given natural, the same as the desire to eat food. I say enjoy your God given youth while you still have it, cause before you know you'll be old and elderly.

 

[ReUsAbLePhEoNiX]

nice knowing you hyper, I figure you got 5 minutes before somebody bans you.

 

[Magisterium]

What Onan was punished for is vague, though. Was he punished simply for "wasting his seed"? Or was he punished because he refused to produce offspring for his brother? It's not specific on what actually offended the Lord.

And on the subject of "wasting one's seed", that happens all the time. Wet dreams, for example.

From what I've seen of this topic of masturbation, the Bible is unclear. A lot of the time I see people speaking out against masturbation (from a Christian perspective) they seem to be injecting their own moral bias.

you can claim that this verse is unclear if you like. But the truth is, "wasted his seed" and "greatly offended God" are prettly clear to me and the church. Additionally, this is not some novel interpretation, this is an understanding from Judiasm which permeated Christianity since it's earliest days. Contraption, masturbation, and chemical birth control were all practiced freely by the pagan peoples of Rome but abhorred by the Jews and Christians. In fact, Birth control was only allowed into christianity as a whole in the 1930's. Beginning with the anglican church who allowed it "in certain cases". Within 20 years, (by the 50's) most, if not all, of protestantism had determined that it was OK. Today I think the Catholic church alone remains in opposition(there may be one or two others).
As far as injecting their own moral bias" implying that he was slain for not providing an offspring for his brother, is perhaps a prime example...

PS: I'm not trying to drag the discussion into birth control and contraception... Just wanted to make the point that the're all tied to that verse in Genesis...

 

[ReUsAbLePhEoNiX]

you can claim that this verse is unclear if you like. But the truth is, "wasted his seed" and "greatly offended God" are prettly clear to me and the church. Additionally, this is not some novel interpretation, this is an understanding from Judiasm which permeated Christianity since it's earliest days. Contraption, masturbation, and chemical birth control were all practiced freely by the pagan peoples of Rome but abhorred by the Jews and christians. In fact, Birth control was only allowed into christianity as a whole in the 1930's. Beginning with the anglican church who allowed it "in certain cases". Within 20 years, (by the 50's) most, if not all, of protestantism had determined that it was OK. Today I think the Catholic church alone remains in opposition(there may be one or two others).
As far as injecting their own moral bias" implying that he was slain for not providing an offspring for his brother, is perhaps a prime example...

PS: I'm not trying to drag the discussion into birth control and contraception... Just wanted to make the point that the're all tied to that verse in Genesis...

why would God make something like sex drive, then accidentally made it work too good. Then place the blame on the human?