Is it healthy for society to have dangerous sports like boxing?

[Linux]

Is it healthy for society to have dangerous sports like boxing?

 

[englishredrose]

It isn’t any more dangerous than crossing the road even at designated crossings…

 

[OxygenMan]

I wouldn’t say boxing is all that dangerous. There are strict rules to keep it from being too risky. Of course, they get bruises and lose some teeth, but it’s rare for a fighter to truly get hurt bad. I’d say our society is quite careful as far as that stuff goes. We don’t have any blood sports, like gladiatorial fighting or bull fighting.

 

[DexUK]

Personally I think that it’s barbaric to allow a ‘sport’ where the objective is to beat your opponent into a pulp, disfigure them (see veteran boxers’ noses and ears) and, if possible, to cause them such a significant brain-injury that they lose consciousness.

If I were involved in a fight with someone in the street and caused them exactly the same amount of damage as is caused - legally - in a boxing ring, then I would quite rightly serve time.

For me, boxing is abhorrent and I can’t abide it.

 

[meltzerboy]

I wouldn’t say boxing is all that dangerous. There are strict rules to keep it from being too risky. Of course, they get bruises and lose some teeth, but it’s rare for a fighter to truly get hurt bad. I’d say our society is quite careful as far as that stuff goes. We don’t have any blood sports, like gladiatorial fighting or bull fighting.

I disagree. Boxing is as dangerous a blood sport as there is in the US, considering the aftereffects of concussions that occur. Do I like boxing and find it entertaining? Yes. Is it healthy for society? No. The old catharsis aggression hypothesis of Freud’s was disproved years ago. An opportunity for poor minorities? There are other, safer, more long-lasting ways to make money and move up the socioeconomic ladder.

 

[chero23]

Somebody mentioned that boxing as barbaric. With MMA and boxig i would agree, but throughout history we have always had this. From gladiators, to horse sword duels, wild west shootouts, wars, and now estreme fighting. I believe that these tings are not necessary (for the exception of wars, which have been necessary like World War @, to overthrow Hitler) , but everything else is just not right.

 

[Allegra]

Sports in general are only healthy for the participants. For society, it encourages a whole mess of social ills. (excessive drinking, gambling, rioting, violence, and from what I hear even prostitution are considered acceptable behaviors orbiting sporting events. How does anyone find the time to watch the game anymore?)

School-sponsored athletics have an ill effect on high schools and colleges when student athletes are given inflated grades and excused from work because they are on the team and tax dollars that are meant for education of students are pilfered in order to finace vastly expensive athletic programs that serve no academic purpose and only serve a tiny, fraction of the most fit student population and completely ignores students most in need of physical training and guidance.

The only individuals who recieve a health benefit from sports are those who are able to participate in the sport and those who are most in need of that benefit are never encouraged to participate in it unless they happen to qualify for Special Olympics. Professional athletes often negate that benefit by driving their bodies to the point of permanant injury. Pediatricians now report that even small children’s bodies are being pushed to the point of injury in compeditive sports. Professional boxers routinely get punched in the head. I see no benefit that outweighs the negatives.

 

[OxygenMan]

I disagree. Boxing is as dangerous a blood sport as there is in the US, considering the aftereffects of concussions that occur. Do I like boxing and find it entertaining? Yes. Is it healthy for society? No. The old catharsis aggression hypothesis of Freud’s was disproved years ago. An opportunity for poor minorities? There are other, safer, more long-lasting ways to make money and move up the socioeconomic ladder.

I guess so.

 

[colmywaykurtz]

I disagree. Boxing is as dangerous a blood sport as there is in the US, considering the aftereffects of concussions that occur. /QUOTE]

I don’t know, some of that UFC stuff gets just as dangerous at times, I think, if not more so. Its compensating factor is, it’s usually over pretty quickly.

Do I like boxing and find it entertaining? Yes. Is it healthy for society? No. The old catharsis aggression hypothesis of Freud’s was disproved years ago. An opportunity for poor minorities? There are other, safer, more long-lasting ways to make money and move up the socioeconomic ladder.

With this, I agree. I don’t know how many times I’ve re-viewed the “Rumble in the Jungle”—Foreman vs. Ali, 1974. But I’d never want any kid of mine going into boxing, and anybody else who’d ask for my advice on the topic, I’d say “Stay away from that!”

 

[CF_Mathews]

WWJD? All I can say, is I think boxing is disgusting and uncivilized and probably a sin. We are not meant to abuse our bodies, which are temples of the Body of Christ and the Holy Ghost.

 

[georget]

Watched it until I saw Tex Cobb getting his brains scrambled.
What a horror show.

 

[Lancer]

Just some “food for thought”…for consideration.
Pax Christi

Dangerous has got nothing to do with it…per se…the problem begins well before that. Just look at what the CCC says about sports in general:

2289 If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value.** It rejects a neo-pagan notion** that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for its sake,** to idolize** physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships.

2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.

Just think about…our “non- violent sports” (even our contact sports like football can be included…if you like)** where idolization occurs**…both by those** “inside the playing lines**”…and by those **“outside the playing lines” **(the watchers & followers in the arena) and those **“inside the money-making lines” **who are not directly involved in “playing or viewing”…

…now think about some of the senseless…beyond sporting competition…things that happen to those “inside the playing lines” …it doesen’t take a “moral rocket scientist” to see that the virtue of Temperance…is sorely missing in our culture…both “inside and outside the playing lines”…and maybe…maybe a subsidiarity causal factor in other violent tragedies…e.g., the Kansas City Chiefs player who killed his live-in-girlfriend-mother of his? child…then committed suicide in front of his coaches;…or…the current double amputee track star who has just been arrested and charged with the murder of his girlfriend (emphasis on “charged”)…or the Tiger Woods episodes that broke up his marriage and obliterated his family (hard to think that the sport of somewhat “aristocratic gentlemen” could be tarnished)…or…and the beat goes on. Again…our sports culture is probably not the primary cause…but the “idolization” and the “competitive ego and lucrative money” aspects of our sports culture can hardly be dismissed as “without a doubt”…non-factors.

Here is what Vatican II said:

**Gaudium et Spes

Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
Second Vatican Council
Promulgated by His Holiness Pope Paul VI
December 7, 1965**

PART II
SOME PROBLEMS OF SPECIAL URGENCY

Chapter 2: The Proper Development of Culture

**Section 3: Some More Urgent Duties of Christians in Regard to Culture
**
61. Today it is more difficult to form a synthesis of the various disciplines of knowledge and the arts than it was formerly. For while the mass and the diversity of cultural factors are increasing, there is a decrease in each man’s faculty of perceiving and unifying these things, so that the image of “universal man” is being lost sight of more and more. Nevertheless it remains each man’s duty to retain an understanding of the whole human person in which the values of intellect, will, conscience and fraternity are preeminent. These values are all rooted in God the Creator and have been wonderfully restored and elevated in Christ.

The family is, as it were, the primary mother and nurse of this education. There, the children, in an atmosphere of love, more easily learn the correct order of things, while proper forms of human culture impress themselves in an almost unconscious manner upon the mind of the developing adolescent.

Opportunities for the same education are to be found also in the societies of today, due especially to the increased circulation of books and to the new means of cultural and social communication which can foster a universal culture. With the more or less generalized reduction of working hours,** the leisure time of most men has increased**. May this leisure be used properly to relax, to fortify the health of soul and body through spontaneous study and activity, through tourism which refines man’s character and enriches him with understanding of others, through sports activity which helps to preserve equilibrium of spirit even in the community, and to establish fraternal relations among men of all conditions, nations and races. Let Christians cooperate so that the cultural manifestations and collective activity characteristic of our time may be imbued with a human and a Christian spirit.

All these leisure activities however are not able to bring man to a full cultural development unless there is at the same time a profound inquiry into the meaning of culture and science for the human person.

newadvent.org/library/docs_ec21gs.htm

 

[Robert_Sock]

Boxing needs to be eliminated as a legal sport.

 

[ffg]

Considering it’s minimal population of participants and gamblers, I would say it is not dangerous for society, but can be for individuals participating (physically), and gamblers (financially, mentally).

 

[Pugsly]

Is it healthy for society to have dangerous sports like boxing?

It is a sign of a healthy society to be preoccupied with building character…from parents to school to commercials…to relatives. People who overarch their children with spiritual health and character building…will be blessed.

On the otherhand, a people who publicly reject God and follow their own hearts, a people who adopt a fear-based, defensive philosophy of the world…leading to health and safety concerns…and worries about food labeling and third-hand smoke and sports injuries…are an accursed people.

 

[TimothyIgnatius]

I wouldn’t say boxing is all that dangerous. There are strict rules to keep it from being too risky. Of course, they get bruises and lose some teeth, but it’s rare for a fighter to truly get hurt bad. I’d say our society is quite careful as far as that stuff goes. We don’t have any blood sports, like gladiatorial fighting or bull fighting.

This is laughable. Ever hear of Gerald McClellan? If not, you should watch this video.

youtube.com/watch?v=LGz-unNi1dU

You may also be interested in reading this article.

livestrong.com/article/507149-boxing-and-brain-damage-statistics/

I have a hard time believing the Lord Jesus Christ would be ok with boxing.

 

[ragingbull]

Hey,

I am currently in the process of becoming a professional boxer. I have fought at ameteur level for over 6 years and boxing has done so much for me. When i started boxing, I was being bullied in school - it sorted it out. i didnt have to fight anyone, but i became more confident and stood up for myself.
I went through a spell a few years ago when i fell away from the faith because i meet some people in university and we spent all our time drinking and partying, something which took a heavy toll on my health. it was a struggle, but I realised how unhappy I was (thank God). The doctor was very concernd about me, as were my parents. I decided to get my life back on track and started boxing again. All of a sudden, the self discipline and self control I had lost were back. I believe that God used boxing, because as a result I returned to the faith with even more vigor.
My girlfriend and I recently broke up, and I have not heard from her for 2 months, and I am completely broken. I feel really lost and unhappy because I live in a different country to my family and friends and I am doing a job which i hate. But boxing is still there for me. It is helping me through this rough spell and I thank God every day for the oppertunities He has put in front of me.
Before every fight, I spend some time alone in a chapel, and I cant tell you how close I feel to God. (because you will always be nervous before a fight) He helps to calm me and although it may sound a little odd, I feel my trust in God has grown a lot because of these experiences. And I hope it continues to do so.

Sorry to bore you with so much detail but the final thing i will say is this, when I box i NEVER have the intention of causing damage to the other person, and everyone who I know in the boxing community is the same. I dont use anger or hatred when I fight, I simply go out to have fun and hopefully win. It is also a good chance to practice humility when/if you do win. So it can be a fantastic sport.