people have been demonizing it for most of the AD years i think but it’s quite pleasant really. are there any proven negative effects?

    • Andy@slrpnk.net
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      7 months ago

      I’d like to go a bit deeper.

      I don’t think people invented socially controlling practices because they found religion, I think they found religion to frame the invention of socially controlling practices.

      Masturbation is a gratifying act that relives pressure to settle into a rigid domestic arrangement that serves to make more workers and soldiers, and create dependents that need fed, and whose well-being would be threatened if a parent became defiant and provoked the ire of elites.

      Masturbation is good for the individual at the expense of the nation and its rulers. So it’s inevitable that priests would decry it as an affront against god, as that’s historically been their purpose.

    • Stupidmanager@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Pretty sad when religion claims to abhor evil, happens to be the source of a lot of it. Right? I can’t name a single thing religion ever did for me other than make me miserable.

      • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com
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        7 months ago

        IMO, and without actual data to back it up, I reckon religion (and religious difference) is responsible for the most suffering throughout the history of humankind.

        • Confused_Emus@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I feel like even without religion we’d find ways to make each other miserable ‘cause we’re just an awesome species like that.

          • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com
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            7 months ago

            Yeah, no dispute here, mate. We’re pretty shocking like that. But I think religion stands out as an example of the worst, most inventive way we’ve come up with to subjugate and hurt people.

            As a species, we’ve convinced ourselves that religion should be protected rather than inspected. We let lots of bad things happen in the name of religion. It’s bullshit.