Why did religions tell young adults that masturbation caused blindness?

I remember that we were taught not to even touch ouselves "down there". As young girls. Never mind masturbation, didn't have a clue to what that was.
In the Catholic Church, all sexual enjoyment unless used for procreation is/was forbidden.

I read somehwere that long ago, maybe 1100-1500, there were days when sexual relations between married couples was not permitted. Holy Days, Sundays, Lent, Advent, "that time of the month"--basically most of the year sex was a no-no for marrieds
Maybe I can find a link, although I saw it in a book.



[edit on 4-2-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

Originally posted by Byrd
jlc163 is right on the mark -- that's how it became a "sin" in Christianity.

It's not a "sin" in other cultures and religions, however, and ... discussing this kind of cultural stuff can be quite touchy in public, so we'll just leave it at that.

Actually, this would be incorrect. I am unaware of any protestant christian denomination (lest it be lutheran in origin and closely tied to Catholicism) that names masturbation a sin - that is, to my knowledge, wholly a Catholic teaching. And it is not correct to equate Catholicism to the whole of Christianity.

[edit on 2-4-2005 by Valhall]

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
In the Catholic Church, all sexual enjoyment unless used for procreation is/was forbidden.
[edit on 4-2-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

.
No its just you cant have sex until your married. It doesnt have to be for procreation. It is supposed to be an act of love between a man and a women.

Originally posted by Seekerof
Quick, Marg....look up the stats on those men that wear glasses.

seekerof

Now that I've found my glasses I can intelligently respond to this thread!

Originally posted by jlc163
The reason for the Condemnation:

Genesis 38:9

Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother." But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD; so He took his life also.

Masturbation is often called Onanism....but the reason this boy died was because he REFUSED TO PROCREATE in effort to have kids in his brother's name, not masturbation....he could have had sex with his new wife (previously brother's wife) and used the pullout method. Since it was never specified, one can't say. Being then that this is one of the early Israelites, BEFORE Mosaic law, it might have been a good idea to see what laws showed up in in the Mosaic law about ejaculation. All it goes on about is that you arent supposed to leave sperm all over the place, as it is unclean...so it may not be that having kids wasn't the issue either...though humanswere commanded to procreate from the beginging. (Early Genensis)

Throughout the new testament, it goes on about how Fornication is a sin. How you should not LUST after other people (unless married to them), either. Now, Masturbation was never covered, in all the things that covered. Gay behavior, sex outside of marriage, yes those ARE covered, as is lust, lol...but playing with one's own genetials is never touched upon. Some beleieve, that since sex-as-sin is as THE ONLY sin against one's self, as well as a sin against your partner, that the reference to the self-sin IS masturbation.
Masturbation as sin was never an outright commandment, so any conclusion is a personal conslusion and should not be enforced on everyones else of the same faith, lol....

Well when you are masturbating are you not lusting after something? Pornstars, moviestars, girls you know, your mom, your cat? lol. You cant masturbate successfully in a dark corner and be thinking about a pencil now can you?

Every time I pick on a Catholic about this, I get someone to defend it. (Guess what, mummy was and still considers herself to be Catholic.)

Originally posted by Truth
Masturbation is wrong because it can lead to more serious sins, and it takes you mind off of God and on yourself and leads you
into serious possesion.

THER IS NO GRAY AREA WITH GOD. His commandments are direct. Masturbation is NOT LISTED in the bible anywhere.

Now about obstaining from meats and forbidding marriage. The church obstains from meats during lent to fast as a sign of sacraficing or giving up something duing the lent season.

All fine if you chose to obstain from meat or to fast. There's nothing in the scriptures about a LENT season. Some of us choose to observe it. My problem is when, in the past, catholic leaders told the people TO THEIR FACES that they were sinning for eating meat during lent. Hence the scripture I pulled up and instructed people to pick on catholics about. Heck, most of today, I fasted. Second, religous fasting is FOR THE PURPOSE of spending time in prayer and studying God's word. Not eating meat on Friday, but going out and getting drunk (wile in and of it'self is not a sin, though certain aspects of it ARE) does nothing for what fastign is supposed to accomplish....because you got nothing out of it but a meatless stomach content. THis is what this type of fasting's fruit IS. In all my years of being surrounded by Catholics, this is all I have seen, and it is a waste of my time and theirs to even bother with.

Now in Timothy when he talks about the passage you gave he speaks of the Gnostic, the Marcionites, the Encratites, the Manicheans, and other ancient heretics who absolutely condemned Marriage, and the use of al kind of meat; because they pretended that all flesh was from an evil principle.

Fine, no problem with this. I'm all for remembering who we are talking to and about. A lot of misconceptions about scriptures would be cleared up overnight if we'd do JUST that. It was FOR them, but all scripture is profitable for OUR OWN maturation as Christians. These people made something CONDITIONAL for certain aspects of faith that was a FREEDOM. MOST churches do that on some level. I just find it halarious that catholics split the same straw....

Where as the Catholic church, holds marriage a holy sacrament; and forbids it to noone, but such people as by (vow) have chosen the betterpart of their rle in life by giving their life to God by not marrying on their own for a sacrafice of their vocation.

But in the Catholc church YOU CANNOT BE A PRIEST if you are married, those are STILL the rules. The assumption is that you gotta be single to serve God in this position. THE EARLIEST form of the Catholic church DID NOT practice this. Peter had a wife, and HE MOST CERTAILY WAS CALLED (Jesus went to see him and his mum-in-law, at one time). After all he was an apostle. Therefore, forcing someone to chose between God and marriage is questionable. Also, every single time it goes into WITHOLDING ANYONE from mariage, the scriptures POINT BLANK go into how it CAUSES the sin of lust....(go read up on the instructions to young widows and whether or not they should remarry). Paul point blank talks about how, IN HIS OPINION, it was better to stay single. He SAID it was his opinion. lol...

Also, where did this Vow come from??? A vow is an Oath...those words are interchangeable. Christ spoke the following in 5:33-37.

33 "Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, `YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.' 34 "But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 36 "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 "But let your statement be, `Yes, yes' or `No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil.

THIS is point blank.

... and AS FOR BISHOPS. (Or Elders, as they are called...depending on which denomination they are under) They are to be the HUSBAND of one WIFE. Why then, are Catholic Bishops STILL SINGLE? Directly a sin to go against a commandment, right?

Look, there are these fallacies throughout the Catholic religion. This is what happens when a man becomes more important than the text he starts with. Don't think I'm only poking at you or your faith. I can do this with the religion of the Church of Chrrist denomination...and I'm still a faithful member. We get caught up in our dogmas, we can't even figure out hwere the Book IS.

Originally posted by Valhall

Originally posted by Byrd
jlc163 is right on the mark -- that's how it became a "sin" in Christianity.
It's not a "sin" in other cultures and religions, however, and ... discussing this kind of cultural stuff can be quite touchy in public, so we'll just leave it at that.

Actually, this would be incorrect. I am unaware of any protestant christian denomination (lest it be lutheran in origin and closely tied to Catholicism) that names masturbation a sin - that is, to my knowledge, wholly a Catholic teaching. And it is not correct to equate Catholicism to the whole of Christianity.

[edit on 2-4-2005 by Valhall]

lol... I never claimed to make proclimations for every single denomination. It was a generalization, dealing with how the problem came about. (THere will ALWAYS be dissidents over every single subject--even ones that need no interpretation to understand) My church doesn't deal with Masturbation, if it can help it, there's no proclimation of any sort. While it's not a sin in the MAJOR doctorine of the Protestants and the whatsits and whonots, many of the general faiths, as individuals, over time, have come to the conclusion that Masturbation is a sin. I could go up to 10 Protestants right now, ask them if Masturbation is a sin, and I'd be suprised to hear 1 tell me it's ok because this is one of the "non-sins that is a sin" that's rather universal in the church denominations...

Originally posted by Croat56

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
In the Catholic Church, all sexual enjoyment unless used for procreation is/was forbidden.
[edit on 4-2-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

.
No its just you cant have sex until your married. It doesnt have to be for procreation. It is supposed to be an act of love between a man and a women.

The Catholic Church at one time, DID decree this. Many early Protestants beleieved this, as well. In modern times, the church, overall, has dismissed this drivel.

Originally posted by CmptrN3rd5
Well when you are masturbating are you not lusting after something? Pornstars, moviestars, girls you know, your mom, your cat? lol. You cant masturbate successfully in a dark corner and be thinking about a pencil now can you?

Actually, I often ignore me getting off. I'll read a scifi novel (a clean one at that) while doing it, and the only thing on my mind at climax has always been, "boy, what a climax", then afterewards I go back to my book. (hand is 7 inches long, so I can easily hold open a paperback with one hand AND flip the pages, lol) I've done this since the age of 3. It's how I put myself to sleep at night, when I was little. The thought of this AS a sexual act, as a precourser to ACTUAL sex didn't happen until I was about 12-14? I've solved math equations while getting off. I've studied for tests. The only time lust had been involved with the act of Masturbation, for me, is when I CHOSE to make it so. So I am living proof that you don't have to lust when you masturbate.

Originally posted by amb1063
i think the point was WHY did they decide to condemn it??? something done in privacy??? what difference should it make............make someone feel like a sinner for doing something that comes naturally that doesn't have to be taught..........

You want to know why? Well, besides a misinterpretation of Genesis (never claimed I could spell), who had to clean up after their teenage boys? The old housewives, that's who! And who in their right mind would like cleaning that fluid up? Yuck!

Originally posted by junglejake

Originally posted by amb1063
i think the point was WHY did they decide to condemn it??? something done in privacy??? what difference should it make............make someone feel like a sinner for doing something that comes naturally that doesn't have to be taught..........

You want to know why? Well, besides a misinterpretation of Genesis (never claimed I could spell

), who had to clean up after their teenage boys? The old housewives, that's who! And who in their right mind would like cleaning that fluid up? Yuck!

Well it was probably dried up and flaky by then. All they had to do was sweep it up.

Would you want to clean someone's dried up, flakey seamen? And I ain't talking companies...

Originally posted by jlc163
I could go up to 10 Protestants right now, ask them if Masturbation is a sin, and I'd be suprised to hear 1 tell me it's ok because this is one of the "non-sins that is a sin" that's rather universal in the church denominations...

Surprise!!!

I can name three of them off the top of my head. My father, mother and sister. I don't go to church anymore, but heck, if it wasn't for masturbation, I'd hardly get any excerise.

lol....
I know one who would agree with me...but I think He's Episcopalian....

I also tend to exclude from this list anyone who thinks Fornication is ok, and that being Gay is not a sin on Biblical terms (not that they have a specificic problem with the odd ones, lol)...because they show a severe lack of treating the scripture as, well....scripture. These types usually think Masturbation's ok because they think of the Bible as a guideline, not a living document. They often know nothing about whether Masturbation is in the bible.

Coz they need their sheep to breed.

One of the easiest ways to gain new believers is to get em while their young and will believe anything their parents tell them.

So you make sure you have lots of parents who can control the youths ideology for you.

Crownd control 101 there really...



The implication here being that masturbation reduces your reproductive drive, incase it needed to be stated specifilvy.

[edit on 5/2/2005 by Corinthas]

The bible should be promoting masturbation then people wouldnt be at each others throats.We all know how it feels to be backed up we get very aggressive.The gun is no longer loaded and you can think more clearly hahaaha.

Masturbation is wrong because it can lead to more serious sins, and it takes you mind off of God

No Offence Truth, but are you being serious?
Is that what you truly believe.
I'm just curious?

1 Corinthians 7 for Paul's opinions.

Originally posted by madhatter

Masturbation is wrong because it can lead to more serious sins, and it takes you mind off of God

No Offence Truth, but are you being serious?
Is that what you truly believe.
I'm just curious?

And wasn' that Christ's problem with the Pharisees? Making laws BY CUSTOMS that which should be free?

When I was in the Marine Corps I was told that people with glass were the ones who didn't masturebate.maybe the Bible has a typo.