10/7/09

Too Sexy for My Theology? On the New Atheist Obsession with Sex

Please note that this essay will now be housed in True Freethinker’s section on the New Atheists
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Posted by Ken
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13 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 7, 2009 at 1:20 PM

    Once again brilliant! Very well adressed!

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  2. mmcelhaneyOctober 7, 2009 at 1:31 PM

    This is an awesome essay. Everyone should read. It get me thinking...if Dawkins is right (I know shock and awe) and if sex's only Darwinian purpose is procreation than why are there so many sexual paractices that don't result in procreation? Considering the only Biblically sanctioned sex is in the freedom of marriage, the best possible circumstances for procreation, maybe Dawkin agrees with God (gasp!)

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  3. KenOctober 7, 2009 at 5:58 PM

    Anon,
    Thank again.

    Marcus,
    You just do not get it do you?
    Darwinian theory is quaint Victoria Era story telling thus, if A and not B then Darwinian evolution made it so and if B and not A then again, Darwinian evolution made it so.

    As it was stated by Philip S. Skell (“the father of carbene chemistry,” emeritus Evan Pugh professor of chemistry at Penn State University and member of the National Academy of Sciences and Emeritus Evan Pugh Professor at Pennsylvania State University) states it:

    Natural selection makes humans self-centered and aggressive — except when it makes them altruistic and peaceable.
    Or natural selection produces virile men who eagerly spread their seed — except when it prefers men who are faithful protectors and providers.
    When an explanation is so supple that it can explain any behavior, it is difficult to test it experimentally, much less use it as a catalyst for scientific discovery.

    Benjamin Wiker seconds that observation with regards “Game Theory”:

    By using games with fewer rules than Candy Land, the Darwinian game theorists are claiming “to uncover the fundamental principles governing our decision-making mechanisms.” We’d better take a closer look, starting with their presuppositions…
    The answer seems to be that whatever has survived must be the most fit; therefore whatever exists must have been the result of natural selection. Fairness exists; therefore, it must be the result of natural selection. Q.E.D.
    It is always convenient to have a theory that cannot possibly be proved wrong.

    aDios,
    Mariano

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  4. AnonymousOctober 7, 2009 at 7:39 PM

    Mariano,

    With this one post, you have addressed a whole host of issues that plague my efforts to defend Christianity. It's one thing for me to point out that the New Atheists base so many of their arguments on the so-called need for some Biblically illiterate notion of sexual freedom. It's quite another to have the material presented in this article to assist. Thank you for this, kind sir.

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  5. AtheistsDoItUnsupervisedOctober 7, 2009 at 9:06 PM

    I'm curious. What is God's position on federally funded STD research? I must have missed that verse. Maybe it will appear in Conservapedia's new Bible.

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  6. BruckerOctober 8, 2009 at 8:56 AM

    While I think your essay is very good, I think AtheistsDoItUnsupervised has a point, too. Telling people to just follow God's way is in many ways also very over-simplified. You give a long list of issues related to sexuality, but I don't think the Bible addresses each and every one, at least not directly. How are we, as Christians, supposed to deal with these issues?

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  7. markOctober 8, 2009 at 10:47 AM

    "What is God's position on federally funded STD research? "

    If it helps cure people and make them better then I would imagine God would be all for it. There are are a plethora of verses in the Bible that speak of helping those in need and it would seem that those in need would include those with diseases, even STD's. The fact that its federally funded only helps prove the point that sexual promiscuity and its influence effect more than the people directly involved. Its the simple fact that if people in this world actually DID follow God's laws regarding sex then it wouldnt have been a problem in the first place. And Brucker, the Bible is in no way vague or oversimplified regarding God's view on sex in the Bible. God views sex as something sacred that should be done only within marriage which is exactly why it gets criticized by New athiests and secularists alike. When you take sex outside of its normal intentions you get the list above.

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  8. BruckerOctober 8, 2009 at 10:58 AM

    Okay, then tell me what the Bible says about pedophilia. I'm not aware of it being an issue addressed at all. You could say that pedophilia is a violation of the requirement that sex be within marriage, but the problem with that is that there is no given age at which marriage is allowable. So if a man wanted to marry an 11-year-old, and her parents allowed it, what does the Bible say?

    One might also argue that it's a matter of common sense, but if that were really true, it wouldn't be an issue at all, I think.

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  9. secularist10November 30, 2009 at 9:48 PM

    "However, this sentiment is simplistic, inadequately generalized and morally bankrupt. In short, this sentiment is far too narrow and shallow to be the least bit useful in the real world..."

    Hmmm... sounds a lot like each of the 10 commandments

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  10. watermark0nDecember 17, 2009 at 2:08 AM

    There is absolutely nothing wrong or immoral at all about sex outside of marriage. God wants you to be stoned to death for it, and thank God none of you actually believe in him enough to follow him on that explicit commandmant.

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  11. muslimDecember 20, 2009 at 5:55 AM

    u know its nice to see u & muslims working together - so did u two co-write the article?

    http://dhi-islam.blogspot.com/2009/12/too-sexy-for-my-theology-on-new-atheist.html

    wonder what u two would do after XD

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  12. RexDecember 24, 2009 at 2:14 PM

    Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT):
    If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.


    (Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB):
    If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife.

    Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB):
    But if this charge is true (that she wasn't a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father's house. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.


    (Leviticus 21:9 NAB):
    A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death.


    And the ever popular:
    (Leviticus 20:13 NAB):
    "If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives."


    Yeah, from these excerpts, I can see that the bible is not at all hung up on sex!

    The sad thing is most people don't know that this kind of vile crap is in the bible. Once you spend some time with it, things become much clearer.

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  13. joeDecember 27, 2009 at 2:15 AM

    Great post Rex- It's like these people have never read their own religious texts. Or they just pick and choose what to listen to.

    It's funny how they just choose arbitrarilly what to follow and ignore in their holy book.

    Also odd that they think mass murderers who find god are going to heaven, yet I (a good guy who helps people) am going to burn in hell FOREVER!!!!

    This would all be pretty hilarious if there weren't billions of people who actually beleived it...

    I guess I am enjoying my sexuality in the right way, because I've never had ANY of those issues from sex. Wear a condom and half of the things you named go away.

    Unless of course you have interpreted that your bible to forbid condoms.

    Either way, don't brainwash your kids once you have them. If they get to be 15 or 16 and want to be a christian then fine. Just no brainwashing.

    ** I would like to leave more than just a name, but for some rason I can't post under anythign else I have.

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