Director Roger Nygard traveled the world asking theologians, scientists, skeptics, and everyday people 85 tough questions to try to understand The Nature of Existence! Now that he’s asked the experts, it’s YOUR TURN! To offer your own insights on today’s question, “Is masturbation a sin?“, Leave a Reply below!
is masturbation a sin? As an atheist i don’t care if it is or not. Just as long as the “stuff” doesn’t get in my eyes.
Well, if it is, I’ll be in big trouble in the afterlife!
It is up to each individual to decide if masturbation is right for them.
What is “a sin”?
when a healthy man said that he don’t masturbate himself usually is laying. imagine the president playing with his toy.and then the pope playing too,and noons and monks,and military,and doctors,and your teacher,and the police man and woman,and your brother or sister,or the one siting beside you,the old man,the kid,the dog,the girl in the restaurant,the most fanatic religious,the prisoner ,the artist,the priest,…..
only sick people or when the desire is death already are allow to not masturbate them self cause there is not point.
the sinners call it pleasure the ones who has to pretend call it sin.
.what a ridiculous question. masturbation is like a good sneeze; nothing more, nothing less.
The idea that masturbation might be a sin is based on the concept that sex should be used only for procreation and not recreational pleasure. The Christian Bible never mentions it directly, but commentators and translators have included it as being a form of fornication (sex other than with a spouse). However, scientific evidence of the the hormonal and psychological benefits of sexual touch and orgasm lead me to believe that it is a necessary part of our adult lives, even those who are not married. So the conclusion is either that EVERYONE should get married and procreate frequently (which some people believe, but not me nor even the apostle Paul), or that some other form of sexual release must be acceptable. Masturbation is certainly the least morally complicated of the choices, so must be on the acceptable list.
Reading this post made me realize that I actually know very little about this matter. I’m glad that I can leave this page with so much fresh info! Thanks for opening my eyes, and making me see how important it is to stay informed at all times. Conclusion? I can’t wait to come back and learn something new and interesting.
May be, in terms of wasted sperms, opportunity cost of potential new lives as Pro-life activists preach. Well, don’t do it then, after 40 nights, you’ll commit the same sin during the inevitable wet dreams! Instead of enforcing the practice of circumcision, God should have put a hymen at the end of the foreskin!
Don’t we get the similar pleasure during the release of our urinary bladder after a while?
May be you’ll go blind if you masturbate, but if you don’t, you’ll become a pedophile!
Absolutely not. I reject the concept of sin to begin with.
No, it’s a sign of a healthy attitude toward sex as long as it’s done (as for many things) in moderation.
There is nothing wrong with a good wank. Everybody does it. Sin is a religious concept designed to lure people into a faith based religious cult. It doesn’t really exist.
There’s no such thing as a God and so no sins.
But no it isn’t immoral. Sex is a healthy and proper function of human beings.
I hear it could possibly make you go blind…would it be alright to do it just until you need glasses?
LOL… no it’s not a sin… but neither is it an accomplishment. (unless one is of the sort to examine the contents of one’s toilet pridefully… with a sense of accomplishment)
everyone jacks off, why hide it and say its bad. the priests probably do it the most
A theology professor once set the lust bar for me. “Here is how you know that you are guilty of the sin of ‘thought’ adultery. Whenever you feel toward a woman more attraction than you feel toward your sister or your grandmother, you sin.” That definition ultimately destroyed my faith. Obviously, it absolutely extended to condemn maturbation as well. And I have never been able to stop masturbating, no matter how hard I tried. However, I have now come to a quite different conclusion.
Beyond spilling sperm on the ground, which some consider the essence of the sin of masturbation, though that is a misreading of Onan’s sin, Jesus stated that to lust after a woman is as sinful as to have adulterous sex with her. I know of no way a man can masturbate without holding images of a woman in his mind. Or, maybe I should say that I know that I can’t. Therefore thinking about having sex with a woman or masturbating at the same time are both as sinful as the actual act of adultery. Both, actual or imagined, are adulterous. For most of my Christian life, I was burdened with enormous guilt when I masturbated and even when I just found a woman attractive. Yet, despite my pastor’s reassurances, Jesus never came to my rescue to “provide a way of escape,” unless masturbation is God’s way of escape. It was Jesus’ no-show attitude that began my journey into atheism. My break with my faith came when I broke through to the following distinction between adultery and sexual attraction. I saw that the church perpetrates an evil, intimidating dominance over persons by concealing the distinction under their all-inclusive cloak of ‘lust’. Jesus was not condemning the lust of sexual attraction, regardless of whether I am married or not and/or whether she is married or not. Neither was He condemning the lust of masturbation directed at that woman. He was condemning the lust which begets planning about how to successfully commit adultery. What is as sinful as actual adultery is to lay plans for committing adultery in the hope that opportunities will arise. If I connive to corner a woman into sex, whether I succeed or not, that conniving is the essence of adultery. Actual adultery is merely the casual sequel to the design I have planned. To plan on having adulterous sex with a woman is as evil as actually having adulterous sex with her. Whether the planning has been ongoing for a long time or is impetuous in the moment, to intent to follow through is the sin. The other side of the coin, the idea that even normal sexual attraction and physical lusting after women’s bodies is the lust that Jesus condemned leads to the following absurdity. Every human being is immersed in adulterous lust from the moment of puberty. So all instances of dating a woman whom I find attractive arise from adulterous lust of simply being attracted to her. Then, all during the period of our engagement, I am guilty of adultery whenever I think of my fiance. And as I eye her with lustful anticipation as she comes down the aisle, I am sinning, right there in church. It is with an adulterous eye that I scan her lovely body coming toward me. But then, by a miracle of grace, as the pastor pronounces the final word in, “I now pronouce you man and wife,” my sin transforms into righteousness, because “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled.” The conclusion I have come to is that there is no sin in any level of sexual attraction, even in the act of masturbation. The sin lies in targeting a woman with the intent to commit adultery with her, whether successful or not later. Being attracted to any woman, my wife or not, is not adultery. Neither is thinking about any woman while I masturbate a sin. And neither is it a sin to still find other women attractive after I marry, as long as I do not engage in plans to cheat on my wife. To be faithful to my wife does not mean that I never again experience attraction to another woman. Of course I will! Rather, it means that I never lay plans to have sex with anyone but my wife. And that means that masturbation during marriage is not adulterous, even if I envision another woman, because I will never allow my imagination to transform into adulterous planning.