I've been keeping this to myself for a while but I must talk about this. First of all, I'm an agnostic-atheist, who doesn't believe in a god but can't disprove the existence. I'm on a 6 day streak at the moment and I was in the brink of relapsing. I wanted to watch some videos about masturbation and I got really confused. Some say it's fine, some say it's not. I personally believe that it's not OK, but find it very hard to abstain from. Different videos, different comments. I found the people against masturbation and also most of you guys here quite religious. That makes me unsteady thinking that I am being fooled by religious people. No offence, I respect your beliefs, but don't believe in them. I have some negative effects in my life including lack of confidence, not being that good with girls (not the forever alone type) and aches in my bones and muscles. But were they really from masturbation? I'll try to try it for a month or 3 months if I can do it and see it for myself. Now I want to ask, what is your religious belief or disbelief ? I really want know guys, it would make me feel better about this. Edit: Sorry I made it an open poll, hope you guys are fine with it
The General NoFap forum section, as per the rules, should contain only secular material (aside from the exception of somebody sharing their own personal story). Check out the rules for more info. Please refrain from posting things of religious or anti-religious nature unless if you’re sharing your personal story. If someone mentions how religion or non-religion has helped them, please do not criticize them. If you want to debate, there are other web communities for that. Unless if you’re sharing your own personal story, submissions should be secular so that Fapstronauts from all backgrounds can benefit from it. Live and let live - regardless of your faith or lack thereof, don't try to impose your views onto other Fapstronauts. If you see any thread submissions in the main sections that break this rule, please report it. NoFap is secular and should contain information that all audiences should find useful. The exception is the Groups feature which contains many religious and non-religious sub-communities. This feature will be more heavily advertised in the coming months. Also, of course, people are permitted to share their own personal stories (this is common in the Introductions or Journals sections). I am the admin of this website and can say that I am absolutely not religious, although I do believe in a higher power (Deism most closely resembles my current beliefs). NoFap is not secretly a religious organization. And I truly think it is awesome that religious and non-religious people can work together to beat porn addiction. NoFap is for everybody who is suffering from porn-induced problems in their lives, regardless of background.
I'm glad to hear your assurance on this. Yes what I saw in this forum was not religious except personal stories, I was more concerned about people in youtube etc.
I am with Alexander on this. I am also not affiliated with any religion but believe in a higher power. I am still myself looking for answers on masturbation. My current belief is; if one can avoid masturbation he will be better for it. It shows a strength of mind to control any urges. However I do also agree in healthy masturbation (opposed to PMO). I think a release is not the end of the world and forcing the mind when not ready can also be harmful. I see Abstinence without proper preparations as trying to run a marathon without practice. . When you fail it does not bode well it can destroy your confidence and make you fall further. (This was my case but not everyones). I therefore propose removing porn first or setting small targets. . Start small abstinence is no easy under taking as most nofap members will agree.
I think that it is beneficial to abstain from masturbation entirely during the duration of the rebooting process (coming from personal experience). If I continued to masturbate, I would often start fantasizing about porn or porn-like stuff because it would just get boring after a while. My brain was used to more stimulation. Same thing during sex, I would just fantasize. That is why I recommend complete abstinence for a period of time during rebooting. After your brain has separated porn from sex and masturbation, I have nothing morally against either act. I think masturbation can be healthy in moderation, but it takes a while for a porn addict to get to that point since we so heavily abused it in conjunction with porn - it is hard to separate the two. I would say that M without P or P fantasy is generally fine if it isn't excessive and doesn't take away from other areas of life. If it becomes compulsive (ie missing work to jack off or doing it in public places), you might want to take a break for a while. Same goes for regular sex addiction - they are very similar. Some people choose to not M at all for life, which is totally fine but an entirely personal choice that NoFap does not preach. These people usually find NoFap a helpful resource for meeting this permanent goal. I prefer the moderate approach. I don't M if I am in a relationship. If I am out of a relationship, I might M depending on my goals at the time. If I am not looking to have S or be in a relationship and WANT to let go of the sexual energy, M seems reasonable to me. I am porn free for live and intend never to go back - that stuff is awful.
I fully agree and accept that this is a secular site and that religious point of view is a side issue to the main reason we're here. However I also think it's an interesting observation that most faith positions would be pretty hostile to pornography while the permissive society was embracing it for all it was worth. So while the working may have been diffent the results of the calculation ended up the same as our own - that pornography is "a bad thing". So I think it's entirely appropriate in the search for tricks, tips, tools, approaches and world views that we might want to investigate spiritual points of view in the way dasdasdas suggests - but not push them on others. If you want to message me directly dasdasdas we can continue the conversation.
I am Catholic, and as I understand it, the churches teachings of pornography and why it's wrong are very simple *It exploits and degrades human bodies. *It's people acting out the act of love. Takes away the special feeling and meaning of sex. *We preach that the human body, both man and woman, should be respected. *Pornography shows the body as an object to viewers. Thus, leads people to objectifying others. Because those reasons, it makes it a sin. As far as I know, I think this is what most everyone else's view on porn as well. It's disrespectful, and a lot of the women are forced into it. Those teachings have been giving me the push I needed to abstain. It's sin, so that has motivated me to abstain out of fear of sinning. Also, disrespecting other peoples, and my own body. ~Squeaky Soul
