Finally Today

Ethical Reasoning(s) surrounding M.asturbation?

I have yet another controversial topic for you to sink your teeth into. I've answered a number of questions posed here surrounding whether m.asturbation is wrong. Yet again, mixed emotions here, given my Christian upbringing. In relation to adolescents, I believe that even if frowned upon, it certainly is the lesser of two evils when compared to indulging in indiscriminate, unprotected (premarital) sex. I have YET to hear of someone contracting AIDS/STDs from self-manipulation. Also, if a man/woman decides to remain single & celibate for his/her entire life, is it unreasonable to expect either of them to totally refrain from that practice? I expect to get some slack over this one but let's try to keep the comments as CLEAN as possible, shall we??? :-) Thanks for your answers thus far. In reference to "What's Your Problem"'s comment, especially regarding this issue relative to adolescents, I'm not negating whether or not m.asturbation should be allowed but simply stating that if you compare m.asturbation to indulging in unprotected, permissive sex, it is a whole less riskier in terms of contracting diseases and by that comparative analysis, would merit being described as the "lesser of the two evils", especially if one regards either practice as sinful.

Public Comments

1. well, according to psychology today, masturbation is healthy, and natural and EVERYBODY doesit.. weather they admit to it is another thing tho... I think if it causes you that much grief, then by all means, abstain! However, for the majority, I think it is just a means of blowing off steam ( so to speak) and it is a very relaxing thing- plus it just feels good.... You wouldnt shame someone for rubbing thier feet if it felt good, so why shame them for rubbing.....'something else?' God gave you ALL your body parts, not just some of them. However, religion has caused alot of harm in the way it presents our sexual parts as being 'dirty' and bad and so on... I think if it brings you pleasure and you hurt noone in the process, go for it! And if it bothers you, and you really dont want to do it- then dont!
2. I have never understood why people think m.asturbation is dirty, especially living in the times when you can contract so many diseases from having unprotected sex. In my opinion I think we should be celebrating the fact that we can gratify ourselves without putting ourselves in danger! If we had that mindset there would be a good chance that teenage pregnancy percentages would drop, and so would STD percentages.
3. As far as I know,this practice is toward the SELF-lust only. Real sex involves the sharing and giving of pleasure...the "other method" involves neither.There is no love given...of course,in too many cases,sex is without love at all! The best sex involves pleasing your partner-turned toward the self leads to nothing but an empty experience at best....
4. So are you saying that you dont EVEN M.asturbation?? Am i right, Mister?
5. Its perfectly fine as long as you do it in your privacy and not in front of others. There is no need to bring ethics in this. Human insticts makes us do this. Example: we may want to do many different kinky things in sex, and in reality we may not be able to do it. so the best way is to think and fantasize about it and mastrbt. (Trivia: which part of womens body has absolutely no use for anything except for pleasure? Ans. The Clitoris.) So there is ethically, physically, mentally, emotionally nothing wrong in mastrbating. Just keep enjoying while you can ;) (you may not be able to when you get old)
6. Let M = ************ I believe there is a fallacy in your argument. You argued that since M is the "lesser of two evils", it should be "allowed" in order to reduce unprotected (premarital) sex. But does this mean that anything, when it is comparatively less harmful, should be allowed? Even if it is against the teachings? For example, the bible would teach you not to kill. It would probably teach you not to hurt someone. If someone did something terrible to my family and I wanted revenge, is it fine to merely hurt him instead of killing him, since it is the lesser of two evils? I'm sure you can see that its not the case. This scenario, like the question you asked about M, actually depends on whether you feel there is a need to follow the teachings of the bible to the dot! If you feel that the bible doesn't make sense or is no longer relevant in today's context, can you "re-interpret" it to suit your needs? What kind of religion is that then? Anyway, I'm an agnostic, so I'm just curious how you would resolve this issue. Is it ok to M and ignore the teachings when convenient, or must you follow it blindly, even when it doesn't make sense?