Apologetics on Masturbation sinfullness

The constant teaching of the Church is that it is sinful. That isn't enough.

If you aren't accepting that then are you looking for a natural law argument? If you help me better understand maybe I can find something.

I don't know if this C.S. Lewis quote helps, but see the section on masturbation.

 

I'll think about it some. Have you ever read Humanae Vitae? If not maybe that would help. I don't recall if it touched on masturbation but it talks about human sexuality. What about Pope St. John Paul II's 'Theology of the Body'? I've not read it but it is supposedly excellent and would I assume touch on some relevant things for you.

 

Sometimes it is because I, or God, said so. But yes, there are most often good arguments. I'm not criticizing you because I completely understand how viewing it as wrong or poisonous helps you avoid it. But our greatest virtue is in acting in faith. For example Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac. Sometimes I know I have a need to know or always have a reason. Ultimately it can be maddening as there is never a sufficient reason to counteract my casuistry.

Edward Feser has a talk on YouTube. on sexual ethics. He might touch in it. He has a post that discusses masturbation on his blog. Look into his material as he is a modern Thomist.

 

My point of view is : look at the hand. Is it a sex organ? Is the hand made to substitute vag. or pen. ?

Just two analogies:

It's possible to feed someone by putting them on a drip. But we understand that it's not normal. It's connected with a disease. And we understand that to be healthy means to eat and drink with the mouth and the effect of treatment is the same.
I know somebody who not having a partner was hugging and kissing a pillow before falling to sleep. Should he continue it or is it something silly?

Masturbation is normal nowadays because so said people, doctors, educators, politicians, ..... who are / were either atheists or non Christians or listeners to heretical teaching or Catholics who rejected their faith.
Should we follow them?
Or we should follow Christ in the teaching of our Church?
Why are we on this forum? Is that not a result of being obiedent and believing in what the enemies of Church said and taught us?

 

You might look at
Harvey, John. "The Pastoral Problem of Masturbation." The Linacre Quarterly 60 (1993): 24-49.
If you google it you can pull up a pdf

 

It has to do with the separation of the conjugal act from procreation. (This is described in Humane Vite). They were meant (designed) to go together. You can't have one without the other. By just taking one piece (conjugal act without procreation) it's not how God designed us to function. If everyone merely masturbated we would cease to exist (no life). Similarly, if we take the other piece (procreation without conjugal act), we have the "test tube babies". Also not how God designed the world. Therefore it's not his will that we replicate in that manner. In both cases, there's a lack of REAL love (God who is love). Real love only happens when it's sacrificial. Just as Jesus showed us on the cross. In both of these cases, there is a lack of sacrifice for another. In one case there's no love. In the other case there's no life. The two must go hand in hand because love and life can't be separated because God can't be separated because he is One God (life and love). In those cases in which one sacrifices himself for another (true self sacrificial love), life springs forth. In the case of marriage, a spouse sheds his old way of life (sacrificing it for his spouse) in order to bring about a new life, a baby. It's no coincidence that there's a correlation between love and life in this manner as God is both love and life as well. When Jesus offered himself up as a sacrifice on the cross, new life sprung forth. Our new life in Christ which allows us to be saved through his redeeming work on the cross.

I hope that helps.

 

Excellent reply Sleepy.

 

Sparky, brother, your situation is tough. I don't have a lot or experience with celibacy (like none). Right now, because it's the first time in over 6 decades that I actually have the strength to overcome the pmo scourge I guess I have 16 days worth of experience lol.

I thought sleepyspider covered it well. There was one place in scripture that might refer to it as being evil in God's eyes (Gen 38:9), but it's debatable you could consider spilling his seed on the ground as masturbation. I guess it depends on how you consider a man withdrawing before the climax. Certainly sinful, but masturbation? I don't know.

 

Good answer, sleepyspider.

 

The link didn't work, but I think this is the page: https://couragerc.org/resource/452/

 

• Masturbation

High Resolve and Spiritual Life Destroyed—Secret vice is the destroyer of high resolve, earnest endeavor, and strength of will to form a good religious character. All who have any true sense of what is embraced in being a Christian know that the followers of Christ are under obligation as His disciples to bring all their passions, their physical powers and mental faculties into perfect subordination to His will. Those who are controlled by their passions cannot be followers of Christ. They are too much devoted to the service of their master, the originator of every evil, to leave their corrupt habits and choose the service of Christ.—Child Guidance, 445, 446.
Vital Energy Is Depleted—The practice of secret habits surely destroys the vital forces of the system. All unnecessary vital action will be followed by corresponding depression. Among the young the vital capital, the brain, is so severely taxed at an early age that there is a deficiency and great exhaustion, which leaves the system exposed to disease of various kinds.
Foundation Laid for Various Diseases Later in Life—If the practice is continued from the ages of fifteen and upward, nature will protest against the abuse she has suffered, and continues to suffer, and will make them pay the penalty for the transgression of her laws, especially from the ages of thirty to forty-five, by numerous pains in the system and various diseases, such as affection of the liver and lungs, neuralgia, rheumatism, affection of the spine, diseased kidneys, and cancerous tumors. Some of nature's fine machinery gives way, leaving a heavier task for the remaining to perform, which disorders nature's fine arrangement; and there is often a sudden breaking down of the constitution, and death is the result.—Child Guidance, 444.
The Results of Self-Abuse—Females possess less vital force than the other sex, and are deprived very much of the bracing, invigorating air by their indoor life. The results of self-abuse in them is seen in various diseases such as catarrh, dropsy, headache, loss of memory and sight, great weakness in the back and loins, affections of the spine, the head often decays inwardly. Cancerous tumor, which would lie dormant in the system their lifetime, is inflamed and commences its eating, destructive work. The mind is often utterly ruined, and insanity takes place. See Appendix A.— (Testimonies on sexual behavior, adultery, and divorce 121.2 - 122.3)