Is the Human Body Sacred or Just a Tool?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion explores the nature of the human body, questioning whether it is sacred or merely a tool. Participants delve into spiritual, philosophical, and personal perspectives on the body, including its role in intimacy, self-perception, and societal expectations regarding virginity.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that the body can be viewed as either sacred or a tool, depending on individual perspectives and experiences.
  • One viewpoint posits that the body serves as a vehicle for consciousness and procreation, while another emphasizes the intertwining of the body with the environment and nature.
  • Concerns about virginity are raised, with discussions on societal conditioning and differing historical perspectives on sexual relationships.
  • Several participants express personal reflections on how physical well-being impacts mental clarity and emotional health.
  • There is a suggestion that intimacy in sexual relationships is valuable and that the preservation of virginity may relate to emotional connections.
  • One participant questions the definition of the body in relation to the tools we use and the cells that are constantly being lost, pondering the boundaries of personal identity.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on whether the body is sacred or a tool, and multiple competing views remain regarding the implications of virginity and the nature of intimacy.

Contextual Notes

Some arguments rely on personal beliefs and experiences, while others reference historical and cultural contexts that may not be universally applicable. The discussion reflects a variety of assumptions about morality, intimacy, and the human experience.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in philosophical discussions about the human body, intimacy, and societal norms surrounding sexuality may find this thread engaging.

Gale
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I'm curious as to what you all feel about the human body. Is the body sacred? is it a tool? And if you believe either, explain.
 
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It is anything you want it to be until you see if for what it is.
 
Your question relates to both spiritual (sacred) and physical (tool). By way of sacred if you mean should we revere our bodies; only if you like looking in a mirror and love what you see. A tool? more like a vehicle for keeping the conscious self alive and procreation.
 
My brain makes me sentient, the rest supports my brain. From this perspective, the environment is also part of my body and also the food industry.

This intertwining of the material body with the world generates a spiritual perspective and honour for nature. Though the only thing 'supernatural' about it is the existence of sentience. If only becauase sentience canot be proven by scientific method due to the 'hard problem'. Of cuorse it can as I am perceiving and understanding, therefroe I am sentient. Sentience has been proven.
 
Well, when i considered this question, my focus was mostly on virginity. Its a common thought to wait, to give your body to someone you love. I myself wanted to wait until marriage. What really is the justification for such a belief? Often you hear people say the body is a temple things like that. At the same time there are those who use, perhaps abuse there bodies, using it as a sort of tool to get what they desire. Without getting even further into my motives for asking this question, i just wanted to know how perhaps people feel we ought treat our bodies. and whether they are just material, whether they should have certain values attached to them, ect.
 
Gale17, everything as a cause and affect. If you view an act as wrong according to your conscious or subconscious wheater you want to acknoledge it or not it will affect you mentally and physically. If you use someone, you use youself. If you are honest, the honesty follows you. Try to keep the balance as best as you can without going crazy with it.

When I was 17 I met this pretty little thing from south america, I looked into her eyes and I became free. To be free is what we search for, what we strive for. It opens us to a greater understanding of which all things are part of. Stay in balance, be true and maybe without looking, your answers in life will find you. What you accept as the end is the end, what you accept as the beginning is your begining. What will you accept?

I have witnessed some which were perfectly moral, hit an older age and went nuts with it and lost all self respect. It is a balance and maybe a difficult one to find. Don't worry about being careful to be led down a wrong path. Do this and it will be your guide: How will I affect others in what I do. Your answer will be here. For the repercussions of your actions will not be for yourself, but for someone else. You will be more susseptible to this.

No God will ever judge you, that is idotic. I am catholic. The system is perfect, we judge ourselves. I can see the future sometimes, and it makes me crazy when I think of it to much. When I am here, right now, life is good. Be here, be right now, you will know what to do. Don't trust me, trust in over the billion years of work that made you. All the tools are there for you to find the answers which you seek.
 
What really is the justification for such a belief about keeping your virginity? Simple; "conditioning". For thousands of years men and religions have expected that she will have not known another befor marriage. She shall be pure and untouched. On the other hand the ancient egyptians, greeks and romans to some extent openly encouraged and taught the way of love making, a wife was expected to know the ways. So if your motive is to please your husband or god that expects a new wife to be a virgin then obstain. If you don't give a rats arse, then go for it and be happy. I will clarify by stating that some men obstain for similar reasons.
 
I think the best thing about my body is its ability to walk my brain around so it can experience new things.

- Warren
 
My body makes my mind think a little easier in my opinion. Whenever I am overly stressed out I go out and run, many miles for sometimes over an hour. When I am done, my mind is clear and I can focus on whatever needs to get done. I take care of my body, and it takes care of me.
 
  • #10
in responce to the virginity question

Perhaps it is because such intimacy is the most open, deepest, most personal (intimate right?) form of communications, that any two (or more?) human beings, can indulge in, hence preserving something of that, the intimacy, would been seen, or 'viewable', as valuable...

The more you would (need) learn to be sort of 'disinterested', in the Guy/Gal, which you need to do, if you would want multitudious parteners, inasmuch as now it usually ends up being more about the sex, then the intimacy that is supposed to surround sex, and intimacy that can, IMO add tremendously to the pleasure of the experiance, over time...

Why would you learn intimacy with someone you either don't know well, or will never be with again, as you will continue looking for more, so your going to end up boiling it all down to the sex itself as the people you are using, blur into "just a body" (thats there)...the ability to develop intimacies based upon a mutually agreed upon sexual act sort of runs hand in hand with the idea of what the intinmacies of sex afford as exposure of self to another...

Virginity in a female would also mean no "previous emotional baggage"...at least it is less likely as it is dependent upon the behaviour of the Males, in the family that she came from

But I could be wrong...
 
  • #11
My body is the little part of everything I call my own. Hmm... an interesting question. Would it be valid to call the tools we use, the entities with which we interact, the things we control, a (temporary) extension of our own body?

For example, each day, we lose billions of skill cells - at which point do they cease to be part of our body?
 
  • #12
truthfuly, i believe we should wait for miss or mr right. if you think of how animals and others pick their mates. it usually means the alpha male gets all the females he wants. But with humans it would be more different considering our standards these days are just more then physical strenth. we value our minds, emotions, morals and romantic actions as well. but all that you value in a mate is what you should look for. But of course one does have to. most do not.
 

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