Lent thoughts 9

[mylodon]

As so often with these Lent/Advent blogs, I find myself postponing the intended post because something someone's said has sent my mind off in another direction.

nodbear's post about love inspired this thought: if God wanted sex to be entirely sinful (and only for the procreation of children) why did he make it so nice*? I don't believe in a God who deliberately sets out to entrap and the side of Christianity which has this sort of conversation:
"The earth is only 6000 years old. The bible says so."
"What about all the evidence of fossils or geology which show a much older planet?"
"They were put there by God to test your faith."
frankly makes my blood boil.

Sex in a loving context is wonderful, despite what many of our mothers and grandmothers were led to believe.

*Am aware of potential problem with that argument - will explore it next time. Assuming I don't get distracted..

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

My mother always said that God made sex fun so that people would not put it off, like changing storm windows.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

LOL what a sensible woman!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

ROFL! That gave me a much needed laugh today :)

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Aw. Shall I send Chris Paterson's knees in a packet for comfort? (Just typed Christ Paterson.)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Send the thighs too! Christ Paterson? Wish we could resurrect him, we could do with a few miracles!

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

I have the thighs reserved for me. Best ones Il;ve seen since David Duckham.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I've never understood the mindset that can happily accept vaccinations for flu -- based on the idea that the flu virus mutates and evolves -- or see it in the way dogs, for instance, have been bred for various duties -- people who can SEE that evolution exists and not be able to believe in a supposedly 'all-powerful creator' who could have invented such a system.

But then, I go on the basis that every established spiritual tradition has some variation of "do unto others." The most basic and probably most ignored ground rule.

My wife once pointed out that the clitoris has no function other than to provide pleasure....

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

*nods* I see evolution as being one of God's greatest inventions (if that's the right word).

In re your last point, maybe that's why some societies are so keen to practive "female circumcision". Do you ever wonder sometimes if we really are living in the twenty first century?

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

It's quite clear some bozos would like to go back to about the 12th.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

The earth is only 6000 years old. The bible says so."
I have always had a strange fondness for Archbishop Ussher of Armagh who calculated the exact date of the creation - 23 October 4004 BC!

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Bless him. I suppose it was the equivalent of doing a Sudoku back then.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

ROFL! Something like that :)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Which puts me in mind of Good Omens: "One of his aides took the calculation further, and was able to announce triumphantly that the Earth was created on Sunday the 21st of October, 4004 B.C., at exactly 9:00 A.M., because God liked to get work done early in the morning while he was feeling fresh.

This too was incorrect. By almost a quarter of an hour."

I am enough of an atheist to profess myself unqualified to speculate on God's intentions about sex, but in general I agree with the principle you set forth. Sin involves harm and cruelty. Sex with love, or for shared pleasure, and with no deceit or harm? By my lights, that's nothing like sin.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Yep. And I think your description helps to identify the forms of sex (rape, paedophilia, etc) which are sinful.

And LOL to the Good Omens story. :)

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

Indeed =what we are talking about in a way is the choice between life affirming and life denying

and the former is how I feel faith works for me or should do- as in one of my favourite sayings and whom I have probably quoted before :

i>via hominis visio Dei, gloria Dei vivens homo

the life of human being is the vision of God, the glory
of God is a human being fully alive



and as to the archbishop - calculating the exact date of creation IS indeed a form of patristic sudoko I am certain































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































z

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

I love that quote.

I came so they could have life and have it in abundance. For me that's not just about the next life.

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

i don' think either quote is about the next life or certainly not just so

as christian aid's great slogan says " we believe in life before death "