Friendly agnostic / deist and regular on my blog, VicqRuiz, (words in blue below) commented on my article, Masturbation: C. S. Lewis Explains Why it is Wrong, and I responded. If we go through another round of discussion, I will add it later.
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I think you and Lewis are quite right that a man (or woman) can become obsessed with this practice to the extent that it becomes mentally very harmful.
Similarly, one can become obsessed with gambling to the extent that it ruins a man financially and morally. But that should not be a reason why a low-stakes poker game twice a month with friends should be condemned.
And one can become a gibbering alcoholic, to the destruction of life and household. But that is no reason to condemn me for a Scotch after dinner on Friday night, or a cold beer (or even two!) after an August lawn-mowing session.
Do you see where I’m going here Dave?
Yeah; you think it’s a matter of degree and moderation, and take the common libertarian view, whereas we think it is intrinsically wrong, and Lewis (never a Catholic) does a great job of explaining why.
Sexual orgasm and climax apart from the deepest reason for which it was intended (procreation and mutual self-giving) is disordered. It’s like eating food simply for the taste, to the exclusion of its deepest purpose: nutrition.
We see where all this on a massive societal scale is leading. Look at, for example, pornography, which is destroying millions of lives: all because people can’t manage to live according to a normal and moral marital / sexual situation.
Has pornography become a cultural obsession, do you think? Was the sexual revolution of 50 years ago obsessive (250 million legally murdered preborn babies would suggest that it was)? Were people made massively happier and more fulfilled as a result? Did divorce rates decrease as a result of “try before you buy”? Was women’s liberation an obsession? How about the radical homosexual and transgender agenda today?
Secular and scientific sociology shows that traditional Christian morality actually makes people more happy and satisfied (including in the sexual sense) than being sexually “liberated” and having no particular moral framework as regards sexuality.
Who woulda thunk it? The supposedly “liberated” people are (more and more, and surprisingly so) frigid and impotent, while us supposed “anti-sex” Christians are enjoying a robust sex life. This is sociological statistics, not just me talkin’ . . .
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Why Did God Kill Onan? (The Bible on Contraception) [2-9-04]
Dialogue: Why Did God Kill Onan? (Contraception) [2-13-04]
Onan, Contraception, & Two Protestant Bible Dictionaries [2-21-04]
Masturbation Remains a Grave Sin (Debate w Steve Hays) [1-6-07; links added on 8-13-19]
Martin Luther Condemns Masturbation (“Secret Sin”) [6-2-10]
Masturbation Reference in Sermon on the Mount? [10-18-11]
Biblical Data Against Contraception: Onan’s Sin and Punishment: a Concise “Catholic” Argument [3-7-14]
Bible vs. Contraception: Onan’s Sin and Punishment [National Catholic Register, 5-30-17]
Masturbation: Gravely Disordered According to Catholicism [8-16-19]
Biblical Hyperbole, Masturbation, & Intransigent Atheists [9-3-19]
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