Catholic 'Guilt' Over Sex Is a Myth

[SecularMotion]

Catholics feel no more guilty than any other religious people about "sinful" sexual activities like premarital sex and the use of pornography, according to a British survey. In fact, Catholics are slightly below average on the "guilt-o-meter," with only 14% saying they feel guilty compared to an average of 16% among religious people. Pentecostals, Muslims, and Baptists ranked as most-guilt-plagued in the survey of 4,437 adults, the Guardian reports. Other interesting tidbits:

http://www.newser.com/story/163667/catholic-guilt-thats-a-myth.html

[HockeyMom]

1. Married sex must be OPEN to procreation

There is a major divide between the church's teaching and what their parishioners practice. Oh, you can go back decades on this one.

[cbayer]

2. "Sinful" sexuality that hurts no one else is low on

the guilt-o-meter across the board with religious people, which is not surprising.

However, here's an interesting finding from the study:

The least guilt-plagued over "sinful" sex? Non-religious, strongly atheistic men who consider their intuition or judgment authoritative. The most "guilty": women who are actively religious, strongly theistic, and who consider their religion authoritative.

What does surprise me is the lack of guilt over extramarital sex.

[rurallib]

3. there was guilt before the pill

and the fear of pregnancy. 60 years ago.

[cbayer]

4. That's for sure. The fear of pregnancy and all the shame

that would accompany it was a big driver.

[backscatter712]

5. Sexual guilt is one of the big control mechanisms used by the church to keep people brainwashed.

Who here has read The God Virus by Darrel Ray?

Here's a video by the author that shows how sexual guilt is used by religion to suck you in and and indoctrinate you.

[cbayer]

6. Well, apparently it's not working all that well, as the article outlines.

[backscatter712]

7. I'd call that something to celebrate.

Historically, sexual guilt was one of the big mechanisms that's keep people in religion for centuries.

That it's failing to work on a lot of people today is encouraging.

[cbayer]

8. Surveys show that most catholics completely ignore the basic tenets of the catholic

church regarding pre-marital sex and contraception. If they are going to ignore those, they probably aren't feeling too guilty.

[backscatter712]

9. That's today's attitudes.

I imagine that if you did this survey back in the 1950's or so, the results would be quite different, and rather depressing.

[cbayer]

10. Well, there you go! Progress has been made!

[backscatter712]

11. I'll drink to that!