by ReverseEngineer » Fri 17 Oct 2008, 03:40:41
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '
')Paul had huge hang ups WRT sex. That has echoed through centuries of Christian theology.
I don;t think from any of the quotes attributed here to Paul you necessarily have to conclude he was hung up on Sex, rather he might have simply been concerned about the Population problem resulting from sex.
The Dark Ages encouraged the Monastic life, men and women heading for Monasteries as both Nuns and Monks. Why? Because likely all these folks knew they could not support any children they might bring into the world.
Generally speaking in even a well-to-do family, only the First Born inherited all the wealth, unless said first born was unlucky enough to die of some childhood disease or get killed in a war or die from syphillis after too many trysts with the whores of the day. The rest of the kids often were shipped off to Nunneries or became Priests or Monks and forswore off sex mainly as a means of keeping the population in check. Such a life raised your Spiritual value in such a society, to be able to forgo the pleasures of the Flesh in favor of the Dedication to the Spirit was something to be respected in a time of great hardship.
Like Polygamy in Islamic and Mormon cultures, the repudiation of sex in Dark Ages Christian cultures was a reaction to population problems more than anything else. In the Christian world it led to a schism between those who lived in the Real World and those who lived int he Spiritual world. For a long time those who lived the latter lifestyle held power, but they lost it to those who lived for real world wealth when the New World was discovered. This led to the Reformation and a reorganization into sects of Christians who accepted real world wealth as well as the systems of banking and trade that go with it. Such Christians are of course perversions of the actual teaching of Jesus Christ, and they will Burn in Everlasting Damnation in the Fires of Hell.
Not being a Christian myself, its pretty easy to pick out Christians who are actually cognizant of the teaching of Jesus Christ, they are however few and far between, I have met very few in my life who actually understand this stuff for what it really means. To be clear, the fact Jesus Christ taught this stuff does not necessarily mean he was mortal incarnation of Deity, it just means he was a good man who understood principles of society and tried to deliver those prinicples to others through his life.
You can approach the issues of resource depletion and over population in any number of ways, and frankly if you hold to any of the principles carefully enough almost any of them can work here. The Mormon model can work, the Islamic model can work, the Christian model can work, and so also can a Naturalist Philosophy work.
As living breathing human beings raised in certain cultures, we place Value Judgements on each of these models, and I could justify any one of the models on a moral level. It all depends on the postulates you hold as true, but they have to be examined carefully. In order to do that though, you have to try to step outside your own box, andunderstand the nature of life on earth. Not easy to do this, I fall short in it all the time. But I do see that there is justification for principles held in all the texts handed down from Ancient History. How you want to interpret it is up to you, but the Fundamental Truth is only One, and if you don;t figure out what that One is, you are not getting into the Kingdom of Heaven. No amount of blind faith will get you there. You have to figure it out for yourself.
Reverse Engineer