The ethics and morality of nudity

[Archivist]

My understanding is that in the early Christian Church baptisms were performed in the nude.

 

[Wryetui]

You say that you can even go to Church naked, where is your shame?

 

[Lachrymose]

You can go in front of your Lord and your God, into the sacred Church of God (even if I don't know how much sacred are your churches) naked and stand that way in front of Him, I prefer not to

Can God see you in the shower, or only in a church?

 

[Wryetui]

Please tell me you didn't compare taking a shower to going to Church. I don't know what do you consider church to be but for me is the most holy place, where the altar is and where the very flesh and very blood of Christ is, so don't compare it to taking a shower, don't compare standing in front of the altar with taking a shower.

It seems to me that I'm the only one who remembers what shame is here. The fact that Adam and Eve got ashamed after eating the forbidden fruit because they saw their naked bodies seems to mean nothing to you. The fact that nudity is shameful is inherent to humanity since our protoparents Adam and Eve inherited shame for it.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Maybe because I'm the only one here who knows what shame is.

I know what shame is, and have felt shame in the past, but only for what I feel deserves shame. Not everything that someone might feel shame for necessarily deserves shame. Individuals are going to differ in what triggers this reaction.

Incidentally, one shouldn't confuse shame with embarrassment. When one is taught to wear clothes at a young age, it may be possible to experience embarrassment if one is accidentally caught in the nude. That is not necessarily the same thing as feeling shame unless one attaches a strong moral condemnation to nudity. It is easy enough to get over the embarrassment, much like how one can get over nervousness in public speaking.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Darkhorse]

Phew...Just where do you draw the line as to what you will believe? if it's in the bible will you just believe it with no questions asked? I ask because I can not even force my brain to go there no matter how hard I try.

Since you are an atheist, I don't expect you to believe it. I'm OK with your unbelief. Are you OK with my belief?

I question everything I read in the Bible, but almost all of it I believe by faith, the same as reading a physics book. I have not reproduced the experiments suggesting the existence of electrons, but I take the scientist's results on faith.

What are your explanations for the existence of human evil and the origin of human obsession with wearing clothes?

 

[Darkhorse]

You say that you can even go to Church naked, where is your shame?

Well, I have attended church naked many times, and plan to many more. My family and I visit a nudist resort several times a year, and we usually attend the Sunday morning worship service at their chapel. Yes, it's a real Christian service with hymns, Bible study, a sermon, and prayers for people of the community. It doesn't have the splendor and ceremony of an Orthodox church, but it does have genuine worshippers, most of whom wear nothing at all, including the preacher.

If shame is the barrier which keeps us from approaching God, clothes will not help. Our shame comes from our sinfulness, and only the Righteous of Christ will cover that. I gladly and undeservedly wear those "clothes", whether I wear any others or not.

If God is our Father, and wants us to approach Him as little children to enter His kingdom, why would He be offended or dishonored by our nudity? He designed and created it in His image, He sends every new person into the world nude, He sees through our clothes and all our other attempts to hide from Him, and beckons us to approach His throne with childlike faith and total humility. Nudity symbolizes this better than any clothes we could wear.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

So what about masturbation in public, or involuntary [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]?

 

[Eudaimonist]

So what about masturbation in public, or involuntary [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]?

What about them?


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Archivist]

So what about masturbation in public, or involuntary [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]?

Neither of which has anything to do with the topic of this thread.

 

[Archivist]

Perhaps you can go to church naked too.

Please read the following regarding baptism in the early Christian Church: http://www.hopefullybiblical.com/2012/11/early-church-baptism-was-nude.html

 

[Tellastory]

Is it the human body itself that offends you?
Does it arouse feelings or thoughts that bother you?
Do you see this as a precursor to something else?

What do you feel is immoral or unethical about nudity, when sex is not involved?

Leviticus 18:17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.

Habakkuk 2:15Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

Probably the question is why should any one want to see the nakedness of someone that is not your spouse?

 

[Armoured]

Leviticus 18:17 Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness.

Habakkuk 2:15Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!

Probably the question is why should any one want to see the nakedness of someone that is not your spouse?

Since you seemed to miss my earlier comment... you should work a morning shift in a nursing home sometime.

 

[Tellastory]

Since you seemed to miss my earlier comment... you should work a morning shift in a nursing home sometime.

I believe the intentions of the heart is in question as God searches the hearts.

I was a guidance counselor at a christian camp that had mentally handicapped young adults there for three days during one week. He was not in my group but a young man had soiled himself and his group leader did not want to clean him up, and so I did.

So it is hard not to see the nakedness of the soiled person when I had him take his clothes off and told him to stand in the shower while I had to wipe his butt off of what the shower did not spray off.

Twice I had to do this. The poor guy was sick.

So seeing the nakedness of a person is not a sin, but "looking" at that nakedness is. One has to wonder why one is intentionally looking at a person's nakedness but God knows.

 

[ananda]

Nudity is fearful to many because it means that one cannot live under an illusion ... and yes, everything beyond the naked body - from clothing, accessories, to houses, cars, etc. are extensions of one's own endless capacity for creating illusions for others to see and experience.

 

[OGM]

Since you seemed to miss my earlier comment... you should work a morning shift in a nursing home sometime.

A valid question...

 

[OGM]

I believe the intentions of the heart is in question as God searches the hearts.

I was a guidance counselor at a christian camp that had mentally handicapped young adults there for three days during one week. He was not in my group but a young man had soiled himself and his group leader did not want to clean him up, and so I did.

So it is hard not to see the nakedness of the soiled person when I had him take his clothes off and told him to stand in the shower while I had to wipe his butt off of what the shower did not spray off.

Twice I had to do this. The poor guy was sick.

So seeing the nakedness of a person is not a sin, but "looking" at that nakedness is. One has to wonder why one is intentionally looking at a person's nakedness but God knows.

You are a good person.

As far as seeing him naked, I can see no harm there.

 

[FredVB]

There is shame that there should be doing things that are wrong, these are things that are shown to be wrong from statements for it in the Bible including any of you doing something that.you think is wrong, nudity is not said to be wrong but translations use a euphemistic term of uncovering nakedness for sexual relationships.

 

[Wryetui]

Please read the following regarding baptism in the early Christian Church: http://www.hopefullybiblical.com/2012/11/early-church-baptism-was-nude.html

I do not think you should mention the early church, in the early church they used plenty of icons, do you use icons today?

 

[Eudaimonist]

I do not think you should mention the early church, in the early church they used plenty of icons, do you use icons today?

That's an ironic statement coming from you, since you place such great emphasis on the correctness of the views of the founding Christians.


eudaimonia,

Mark