Sex is our purpose in life ? ? ? ! !!

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RobertinRSA

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I thought that would catch everyone’s attention… But actually I am concerned. I am studying philosophy and last week during a lecture - more psychology, the lecturer went through Maslow’s hierachy of needs and other examples, etc. Basically he said that the three physiological/ psycological needs, namely, safety/ security, sex and esteem.

What upset me is that this lecturer basically said that our purpose/ goal on earth is to reproduce or have sex. He categorised this by saying that if any of these needs are not fulfilled then we will die. In other words if we do not have sex then we will die. He said that everyone needs to have sex! He added that the Church will say otherwise. He said that if you take people and deprive them of sex, they will become frustrated and then they are easier to brainwash!!! He added that the Church uses this as a tool to “control” people. Wacko hey?!

He said that we have a deep desire to have sex, otherwise we would all not be around today. He then said that if you look at really dedicated spiritual monks and nuns, they have a peace about themselves and that if you speak to them they are ready to die, because they have nothing to live for (sex) so they are ready to die?!

I would like to approach him about this because I do not feel that my sole purpose on this earth is to have sex and that if I don’t have any then I will die. I am really struggling at the moment with my fidelity, so this lecture has totally floored me.

I would appreciate your comments.

Thanks and God bless.

:blessyou:
 
Our physical nature is driven in large part by our sex drive as well as other means of survival. That is how we have existed all these years on earth, just like the animals around us. The drive for procreation is an important part of life. As spiritual beings we need to be in control of ourselves, therefore our spiritual side has to be able to control our sex drive. In order to be judged worthy of heaven we need to live a life where our spiritual being is in control of our physical being to the extent that we love God above all else and love our neighbors as our selves.
 
St. Francis of Assisi said, “It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” As for this life on earth, many have lived long fruitful lives without sex. If sex were so important to me that I would die without it, I wouldn’t want to live anyway.
 
RobertinRSA said:
I . . . during a lecture - more psychology, the lecturer went through Maslow’s hierachy of needs and other examples, etc. Basically he said that the three physiological/ psycological needs, namely, safety/ security, sex and esteem.

What upset me is that this lecturer basically said that our purpose/ goal on earth is to reproduce or have sex. He categorised this by saying that if any of these needs are not fulfilled then we will die.
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you need to get out of this class if it is a psychology class because the professor is teaching bad science. he misinterpreted or misrepresented Maslow’s theory, which means he probably misunderstands and misrepresents the theories of other psychologists.

what Maslow said is if basic psychological needs are not met the person will exhibit symptoms of psychological distress or disorder, not that he will die.

there is a parallel theory about needs of species, what drives species behavior (lemmings, deer at mating season, penguins, etc.) and which discusses and compares the actions of an animal (or man) when he is responding to his own needs (defined as inborn or “hotwired” psychological drives) or the needs of the species. Species preservation dictates the drive for reproduction (which may wane in times of famine for instance) and is in sync with the normal drive of the animal. For a lovely depiction of the natural sex drive in nature and humans see the last scene of CS Lewis That Hideous Strength, the final book in his space trilogy.

In human culture the normal sex drive has been reduced entirely to a matter of meeting superficial desires for pleasure and stimulation and entirely divorced from the natural drive to reproduce, due to the culture of death, abc etc. When we talk about needs today we are not talking about those instinctive drives built into our nature, we are talking about something much more childish and ephemeral. That at least is what your professor picked up on.

nobody ever died from not having sex. he almost got it right, in that those seeking the gift of celibate chastity to meet the demands of consecrated life must die to self. It’s all in St. Paul What DO they teach these kids nowdays?
 
sounds famiiliar…someone on the net told me a jesuit priest told him something similar…but I’m not sure if he was telling the truth
 
How about getting some data on all those who die because of sex. What about many, many AIDs suffers? those who have died from other stds? those who have died from a broken heart/suicide, after being dumped? And let’s not forget all the millions of unborn babies, who have died in the pursuit of this sexual free-for all.
The sexual urge is strong, and is needed so we will procreate, but it has its place in marriage.
 
You need to remind him that the human has a psychological need to bear fruit not necessarily to strictly biologically reproduce (the sexual urge is but a way to guide us to this end. Humans who cannot reproduce still need to participate in activities that will fulfill this productive desire with other activities. Infertile couples give to others children and work with charities in order to bear fruit. A priest nurtures his spiritual children and, in this way, bears fruit. Viewing this need as only fulfilled through sexual reproduction dismisses the empirical knowledge that many happy fulfilled people never reproduce and never have sex.
 
You need to separate the animal instinct from the “human control” Please separate advanced societies, marriage, religion, etc as human functions above animal functions. Remind your Professor it is wrong to demand your dog acts human and you need not act like the dog either. Tell the professor when the pigs build a plane and fly in it, you will reevaluate the subject.
 
Christopher West writes in The Good News About Sex and Marriage:
Disputes about sexual morality, then, are not merely about differing ethical perspectives, differing interpretaions of Scrpture, or Church authority versus personal conscience. No, they go much deeper than that. At their root, disputes about sexual morality are disputes about the very meaning of life.

I think your philosophy/psychology teacher shared with you his or her understanding of the meaning of life.
puzzleannie said:
you need to get out of this class…
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:yup: Assuming that the op understand his teacher properly, I encourage him to study with someone who understands the proper purpose of life. Remember, an education takes time and money, so why waste your time and money learning nonsense?

As already stated here, the drive is for reproduction. That’s why we call them “reproductive organs”. Rather than becoming frustrated through lack of use, I think it’s more correct to say people become frustrated through lack of proper use. As to death, the misuse of reproductive organs places people at serious risk of both physical death (i.e. AIDS, abortion) and spiritual death (i.e. unrepented mortal sin). Individuals do not die physically because of lack of sex; however, if entire populations fail to reproduce (i.e. everyone contracepts) that population will die out.

Celebate priests and religious sisters and brothers set aside physical reproduction for “spiritual” reproduction. Hence we use the term “father” for our priests, and nuns who head an order are called “mother”. John Paul II wrote about spiritual motherhood in his work “On the Dignity of Women.” Good nuns and priests dedicate their entire selves to the family of God that they serve, just as good mothers and fathers dedicate themselves to their physical families. While in the physical sense, some may think their reproductive organs aren’t being used, their reproductive organs are actually set apart and dedicated to God for spiritual purposes.

Basic catechism: the purpose of life is to know God, love God, and serve God so we can be happy with Him in heaven. We most certainly can use our reproductive organs in whatever vocation God calls us, but if we fail to use our reproductive in accordance with chastity, we will never be truly happy either on earth or in heaven.
 
I believe Maslow was critical of the heirarchy later in life. I don’t think he rejected altogether but said it was misused and was not meant for the general population which I understood in part as being taught in classes like yours.

Dr. William Coulson has many tapes available thru HLI. In the interest of time, Google Coulson and Maslow and see what you can find. Here’s one to get you started. It’s got some good stuff. It may not be enough of a rebuttal for your professor unless you have the time to devote to it. But you will know.
 
Okay, I went through the HLI website and didn’t find a lot of tapes. My mum has a catalog and I asked her to set it aside for me so I can see if the tapes are still availble.

I Googled this and there are a lot webpages discussing Maslow, etc.
 
Hi All…

Thank you very much for your comments, I really appreciate them and they have certainly put my mind at ease. I was discussing this with some friends after the lecture and they told me that he is an athiest - shame! I will pray for him. It also makes sense then that his god is obviously sex?! He must lead a very sad existance!

I had a good chuckle at a lot of your comments… 😃

Thanks and God bless!
 
apricot_yogurt said:
How about getting some data on all those who die because of sex. What about many, many AIDs suffers? those who have died from other stds? those who have died from a broken heart/suicide, after being dumped? And let’s not forget all the millions of unborn babies, who have died in the pursuit of this sexual free-for all. .
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Not to mention those that lost a loved one through death
 
BeeSweet said:
St. Francis of Assisi said, “It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” As for this life on earth, many have lived long fruitful lives without sex. If sex were so important to me that I would die without it, I wouldn’t want to live anyway.
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What would you do about that then?
 
For those who follow the Religion of Hedonism, it probably is in their minds.

For all people, it should be to know, love and serve God.

Most hedonists want to deny the existance of God, so that they have no reason not to live their immoral lifestyles.
 
T.A.Stobie_SFO said:
For those who follow the Religion of Hedonism, it probably is in their minds.

For all people, it should be to know, love and serve God.

Most hedonists want to deny the existance of God, so that they have no reason not to live their immoral lifestyles.
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Which is why sex shouldn’t exist.
 
Neo_Canaan said:
Which is why sex shouldn’t exist.
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This is also a disturbing view. Our God in His goodness created sex. Like all gifts from God it can be misused. Sex is a great gift–the means through which we “go forth and multiply”, co-creating with God human souls as He tells us to do several times in Genesis. Because sex is capable of greatness, the misuse of our reproductive organs is a great evil. But sex and reproduction is very good–truly even holy–when properly used; if it wasn’t the devil wouldn’t temp humans so hard to misuse our reproductive powers.
 
Sex is a means to life and not its purpose.
The question is similar to whether we live to eat or eat to live.
Is eating our purpose in life, because without eating we will all die?Will anybody buy a car with the sole intention of putting gas in it?

Because I do not know much about psychology, I would like to know whether somebody completely devoid of normal logic and common sense can teach that subject.
 
phantom said:
Our physical nature is driven in large part by our sex drive as well as other means of survival. That is how we have existed all these years on earth, just like the animals around us. The drive for procreation is an important part of life. As spiritual beings we need to be in control of ourselves, therefore our spiritual side has to be able to control our sex drive. In order to be judged worthy of heaven we need to live a life where our spiritual being is in control of our physical being to the extent that we love God above all else and love our neighbors as our selves.
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I received an email this am stating that someone had replied to a thread that I had subscribed to entitled “Sex is our purpose in life?”. My mind drew a blank because I couldn’t remember “subscribing” to such a thread. So I looked it up here and found that I had made this post(the quote above) in response to the original post nearly 2 years ago. A lot has happened in my life in the last 2 years. If only life were as simple as I made it sound in that post? I remember as a small child being in my room alone. I was always ridden with guilt, it seems like, I suppose I am still today. I was thinking in my room alone. I thought: ‘how do I deal with life?’ I imagined myself in a deep dark forest. There was darkness all around me. There was a path ahead of me. There were dead end paths off to the sides, but the path ahead of me had a light at its mouth. As I walked the path toward the light, I noticed that the dead end paths would lead to small dark clearings. One lead to a clearing with a very attractive woman and another lead to a clearing with a man who had money stuffed in and sticking out of his pockets. I thought that if I stopped and went to one of the clearings, then I might not make it to the light at the end of the path. Then it occured to me that that is what life is like…if we stay on the path to the light we will see God, if we don’t we may not. I thought, WOW, if only life were that simple !!! Then I realized it…IT IS.
 
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