Why is pornography wrong?

  • Thread starter dekoi
  • Start date
In summary, the conversation touches on the topic of pornography and whether it is wrong or not. The person initiating the conversation is trying to change their understanding of the topic and is open to hearing different viewpoints, but does not want to hear from those who enjoy pornography or have no issue with it. The conversation also delves into the role of religion in the perception of pornography and how it affects society. Some argue that watching other humans have sex is acceptable as long as it is consensual and not humiliating, while others believe it distorts the balance of society. The conversation also brings up the idea that depictions of violence are more accepted in media than depictions of nudity and sex. Ultimately, the conversation concludes that one's own opinion and beliefs
  • #1
dekoi
Why is pornography wrong?

Please to do not reply if u are a secular humanist or a revolutionary who enjoys pornography or has absolutely nothing against. I am trying to change my understanding about this topic to one which is good; my current one is as i see it, very wrong.

Thank you ahead of time for being helpful people like you always are.
 
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  • #2
So we shouldn't respond if we have a different religion than you? Why wouldn't you want different viewpoints?

- Warren
 
  • #3
Well. I'm sorry. I did not mean it the way you perceived it.

The situation is: I have investigated the viewpoints of e.g. some secular humanists and atheists, as well as Christian viewpoints. I undestand and value Christian viewpoints. Yet i can not seem to be compeltely convinced about the wrongness of pornography.

I did not mean to say i do not want to see other religion's opinions and viewpoints. Yet i do not consider sexually-centric secular humanism as a religion or faith. I much rather thing of it as an absurd philosophy.
 
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  • #4
bump~

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm sorry, i am just a little eager for an answer.
 
  • #5
There is no answer. It's a personal, or perhaps a societal decision. If you believe in God, then it's a religious issue. Believe whatever you'd like to believe.

- Warren
 
  • #6
What the hell does religion have to do with pornography ?
(as far as I can tell, just that it has been prosecuted by christianism as a deadly sin, to my opinion just as a side effect of the prosecution of every sexually-related issue except the reproduction -apparently saved from prosecution just because otherwise christians would not have lasted for long-).

Pornography as such may be perfectly acceptable as long as no human being is humiliated.
We watch as entertainment or just as curiosity other human beings doing every kind of activities: doing sports, performing their jobs, taking a walk with their families, dancing, acting as ridiculous clowns just for our fun, performing artistics activities, speaking political or ideological speeches... literally every kind of activity including the so-called "cultural" (able and aimed to transfer some knowledge) or the so-called "leisure" (without any particular purpose or just for entertainment).

Watching other humans have sex is perfecty acceptable, as long as none of them acts against his/her will.
To me, much of what we see in some TV programs is more decadent and humiliating than letting other people see how you have sex.

All the rest are just moral principles promoted by some religions from so long ago, that they nearly feel like hardwired in our brains.

(please note that this comment is purely about pornography itself, understood as just watching other humans having sex. The problem is that unfortunately there are other frequently related issues such as adultery, submision, forcing against one's will, "anything-for-money" etc which should need a completely different discusion)
 
  • #7
It distorts the fine balance within the social fabric of life.
Tylenol PM just kicked in but we'll write more on this soon.
 
  • #8
Amir said:
It distorts the fine balance within the social fabric of life...

It seems like you could say that equally well or more so about the depiction of violence on TV and in movies. It strikes me as odd that on prime-time non-cable television in the U.S., shootings and stabbings can be shown, but not beautiful bodies in their entirety. I have heard that European television isn't quite so strict when it comes to skin.
 
  • #9
The Bible has more graphic violence and sex for the reader to visually interpret than most Western religious texts.
 
  • #10
I don't know any person that would watch porn other than for sexual reasons, even though some are just hilarious... Anyhow, it's only wrong if you abuse it. Having a sexual drive is good and can help make a person more productive, and fullfilling it is a great way to relax as well. Just don't ever substitute it for love or for a girl because then you're just fooling yourself.

There isn't anything really that turns a girl on like the idea of sex, and porn is a great stimulant for that.
 
  • #11
"I know and am persuaded by the Lord, Jesus Christ, that nothing is unclean of itself; but, he whom esteemeth something to be unclean, to him it is unclean." Romans 14, 14. King James version of the Bible.

What more do you need to know or other opinions do you need when the only opinion that counts is your own opinion. If porn ( or anything else) is wrong, bad or sinful to you then it is wrong, bad or sinful to you. Do you want someone else to make up your mind for you or do you want to make up your own mind and form your own opinions?

Long ago in a far different age Lenny Bruce, a controversial comedian who was repeatedly arrested for uttering swear and dirty words on stag said that he couldn't understand why somebody would let there kids watch murder, violence and war in the movies and television but would not let them watch two people make beautiful love to one another. I would hardly call most hard porn as making beautiful love; but, he had and still has a valid point in my opinion.
 
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  • #12
Lenny was one of the first people to make me THINK!

I believe that on several ocassions I caught a bus outside a club he was appearing at, in south jersey, and was too young to go in. The same Phila. police department (that arrested him) would not allow a playboy club to get a license, allowed 'clip joints' all up and down Locust street. what a joke!

the only obscenity in the movies, IMHO, are war or horror movies that glorify violence.

love&peace,
olde drunk
 
  • #13
Loren Booda said:
The Bible has more graphic violence and sex for the reader to visually interpret than most Western religious texts.

You are so right! Sexuality is a natural part of life. It didn't come from the Devil, but when it is abused in society like it is today, then I'll have to say that the sex described in the Bible is FAR AWAY from today's pornography! :tongue2:
 
  • #14
olde drunk said:
Lenny was one of the first people to make me THINK!

I believe that on several ocassions I caught a bus outside a club he was appearing at, in south jersey, and was too young to go in. The same Phila. police department (that arrested him) would not allow a playboy club to get a license, allowed 'clip joints' all up and down Locust street. what a joke!

the only obscenity in the movies, IMHO, are war or horror movies that glorify violence.

love&peace,
olde drunk

And movies that glorify adultery and an unstable sexual life!
 
  • #15
I remember watching German network TV ads, with bare breasted beer maids, when I was 13. For some reason the US is ashamed to show public nudity, but not violence.

In general the pornography that disturbs me is that where someone is demeaned or forced, showing more of a gross director's fantasies than any freedom of acting. Remember, guys, who is really choreographing the scene you're getting off on!
 
  • #16
Janitor said:
It seems like you could say that equally well or more so about the depiction of violence on TV and in movies. It strikes me as odd that on prime-time non-cable television in the U.S., shootings and stabbings can be shown, but not beautiful bodies in their entirety. I have heard that European television isn't quite so strict when it comes to skin.

please don’t take me the wrong way…

scenario: let’s say you are a guy, and your girlfriend or wife is offered 2 jobs in two separate movie.

Job 1: Play a cop that shoots a criminal while he is running from a crime scene.

Job 2: Star in a hardcore porn film where 6 guys simply fill all her holes and do the nastiest things to her.

are you getting the picture!? do you see the point!

now tell me if you had to pick a job for her which one will you pick!? and be honest (not just with us but to yourself as well) , she has to do one, which one!? huh?

in no way am I promoting gore / violence, I think that is just as wrong. but a child (of teen age) is less prone to duplicate violent act then a sexual act. By normalizing pornography you are causing a ripple effect in the pond of social moral balance. It affects lot more then you think, lot more! think about it!
 
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  • #17
Amir said:
Job 1: Play a cap that shoots a criminal while he is running from a crime scene.

Job 2: Star in a hard core porn film where 6 guys simply fill all her holes and do the nastiest things to her.
This is an extremely slanted set of choices, Amir.

In one film, she is just depicted as shooting someone. In the other, she is actually doing the sex acts. How about arguing a more rational set of alternatives, like these:

Would you rather your girlfriend kill someone, or have sex with someone?

I hope you'd agree with me that you'd rather your girlfriend have sex.

- Warren
 
  • #18
chroot: We are talking about pornography here are we not? As for me, personally, I would have nothing do with such a person. Killing in self-defense and other justifiable reasons is one thing and committing fornication of worst kind is quite the other!

hope you get my point!
 
  • #19
Amir said:
Killing in self-defense and other justifiable reasons is one thing and committing fornication of worst kind is quite the other!
Your example was that of a cop shooting a criminal as he flees a crime scene. Not only would this not be self-defense, it would be illegal, at least in the US.

In other words, you'd prefer that your girlfriend commit second-degree murder than have sex with someone else.

Now that's ethos at work.

- Warren
 
  • #20
Hmm..I didn't know "fornication" was still in usage..:wink:
 
  • #21
arildno said:
Hmm..I didn't know "fornication" was still in usage..:wink:

You've got to listen to some Red Hot Chilli Peppers, my lad ! :biggrin:

<sorry for digressing. >

Does this thread differentiate between nudity and hard-porn ?
 
  • #22
What about "lasciviousness", do the Peppers use this word :confused:
 
  • #23
chroot: what's your stance ?
 
  • #24
arildno said:
Hmm..I didn't know "fornication" was still in usage..:wink:



may be it’s “Californiacation” talking ehheheh... :biggrin:
 
  • #25
My stance is that people are known to do many things to themselves and others that are worse than having sex on camera. My stance is that people should worry about those things more. On the list of human behaviors that concern me, the making or watching of pornography is near the bottom.

- Warren
 
  • #26
Thank you for the replies. I've been away for a day and there's already two complete pages :p
--
Goku: This thread is about hard porn or any exploitation of the human body in a non-"art" form. In other words, this thread is about pornography which is primarly used to stimulate a male or a female sex drive.
--
My initial stance has always been: Pornography completely exploits the human body. It transforms human beings into mindless objects. Pornography creates this way of thinking, in which your outlook unto females (or males) is strictly sexual. Therefore, we begin to see beings with souls and goodness, as body parts. Worse of all, we exploit our ability to be sexually stimulated as well. Our sexual stimulation is meant to be used in a loving situation, in which a couple is in harmony and express their love through sexual gratification.
 
  • #27
dekoi said:
Thank you for the replies. I've been away for a day and there's already two complete pages :p
--
Goku: This thread is about hard porn or any exploitation of the human body in a non-"art" form. In other words, this thread is about pornography which is primarly used to stimulate a male or a female sex drive.
--
My initial stance has always been: Pornography completely exploits the human body. It transforms human beings into mindless objects. Pornography creates this way of thinking, in which your outlook unto females (or males) is strictly sexual. Therefore, we begin to see beings with souls and goodness, as body parts. Worse of all, we exploit our ability to be sexually stimulated as well. Our sexual stimulation is meant to be used in a loving situation, in which a couple is in harmony and express their love through sexual gratification.
"It transforms human beings into mindless objects. Pornography creates this way of thinking, in which your outlook unto females (or males) is strictly sexual."

I think that by the time we are naked with our lovers this statement is entirely moot. The human sex drive is such that given suffiecient time out from it few are really any longer capable of rational thought until the primal urge is again met.

The thousands of years of human history shows that prostitution existed all the way to the very beginning; thus it disproves your intellectual argument..what may be right and correct for you is not for another...problem is, there is no ONE UNIVERSAL ANSWER that fits all criteria. If you don't like porn, don't buy it, don't participate in it. I don't care for it and I happen to agree that the world MIGHT be a better place without it...but then I would be forcing my beliefs upon you... in Miami Dade County, a Cuban majority dominated the City Council... they wrote a new law that forbade anyone who was not BI LINGUAL from being issued a new business license... of course it was taken to the courts, where the decision came back with a sharp rebuke..."anyone dumb enough NOT to be bilingual in this city/county is probably not going to enjoy a successful business anyway...you don't/can't legislate your own cultural bias upon the whole of the community.

Free enterprise is the best censor on Earth and it is also the best pollster... we can't legislate morality, we can only legislate laws, which are not one and the same. "-)
 
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  • #28
So FaverWillets, you mean to say that morality is not universal, as supposed to law which is or should be?

I would have to partially disagree. Our morality is founded on our conscience, which is based on the natural law. This 'natural law' is and has been in tact for all of human life's existence; it has always been equal and has never changed. Thus, all humans have always developed their conscience and morality in accordance to this constant law. However, do not perceive this statement to mean that all humans have a 'perfect morality'. There are so called flaws in this system, since our environment might sometimes cloud our vision and disturb our moral developement. Thus, by expressing your "moral opinion" to someone else regarding e.g. pornography, you are not forcing your subjective opinion unto someone else, but the OBJECTIVE truth. We all live in this 'friendly' society where everyone is tolerant of everyone else's subjective statements; we should not be tolerant, we should instead teach them the universal truth founded on the natural law. Therefore, when one has discovered the truth, they shall preach it, and when they do, they are not forcing their opinions, but expressing the universal truth. In my previous post, i expressed the latter.
 
  • #29
And, in due course, we see that dekoi is just another example of a poster who begins a thread by asking questions, but really just intends to try to force his beliefs on others.

Leave your agenda at the door, dekoi. This is not the place.

- Warren
 

1. Why is pornography considered harmful?

Pornography is considered harmful because it can have negative effects on both individuals and society. It often portrays unrealistic and harmful depictions of sex and relationships, which can lead to a distorted view of sexuality and relationships. This can contribute to a variety of issues including objectification of women, sexual violence, and addiction.

2. Does watching pornography lead to violent behavior?

While there is no direct causal link between watching pornography and engaging in violent behavior, studies have shown a correlation between the two. Consuming violent or degrading pornography can desensitize individuals to violence and contribute to a distorted view of sex and consent. However, it is important to note that not everyone who watches pornography will engage in violent behavior.

3. What are the impacts of pornography on relationships?

Pornography can have a negative impact on relationships in various ways. It can create unrealistic expectations of sexual performance and appearance, leading to dissatisfaction and strain in intimate relationships. Additionally, if one partner consumes pornography without the knowledge or consent of the other, it can lead to trust issues and feelings of betrayal.

4. Is pornography addictive?

While not everyone who watches pornography will develop an addiction, it is possible for individuals to become addicted to pornography. This is because pornography can stimulate the reward centers in the brain and lead to a cycle of seeking out more extreme or novel material. As with any addiction, it can have negative impacts on an individual's life and relationships.

5. Can pornography be considered a form of free speech?

Pornography is often protected under the right to free speech. However, it is important to consider the potential harms and negative impacts of pornography on individuals and society. It is also important to recognize and challenge the systems of power and exploitation that often exist within the pornography industry. While individuals have the right to consume and create pornography, it is crucial to also consider the ethical implications of doing so.

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