Is Lust Good?

Thomas Aquinas was pretty thorough in his treatment of the topic. It is a bit hard going but I doubt anyone has examined the issue more closely.
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3154.htm

 

St. Thomas Aquinas is amazing. I would also say lust isn't a healthy attraction but an inordinate attraction. Like gluttony is an inordinate use of food. Attraction is good but only when it considers the entire person. People are more than just body parts and no one should be used simply for your gratification. When we use or view people in this way we are lusting after them and degrading them as human beings.

 

Lust is good as long as everything falls into place and you are satisfied. The problem is that you can use it as a motivator, but once you are with that BF or wive and she doesnt feel like it but LUST rears its ugly head, well what do you do?

Its an energy yes, but hard to control. You know that continuous lust, coupled by the coolidge effect (habituation) makes porn users to seek newer forms of porn stimuli...it happens in the couple too if you are not vigilant and you end up having sex very often...you become habituated to your significant other...then some start looking at other outlets to "feed the beast".

I just think that sex drive and lust are healthy to a certain extent, as long as it doesn't become detrimental to what you are trying to achieve.

 

I think some of the issues here are semantics...

I can only speak for Christianity, not any other religion, but when the Bible refers to "lust" being sinful, it's not referring to sexual desire in an appropriate and healthy way. It's referring to overwhelming lust, like only looking at women as body parts or thinking about sex 24/7 or imagining having sex with some girl you don't know just because she's hot. So just to be clesr, Christianity does not teach that sexual desire is a bad thing. That's something that God gave us to enjoy in the appropriate way.

Anyway, I don't really have anything else to add. I just wanted to clear up that misconception.

 

Much like @StepsReborn pointed out that it may be a matter of semantics. I think for myself, what you are calling lust, I would tend to call or view as "sexual attraction." Attraction to someone on a sexual level is healthy, normal and in my mind not innately a problem from my Christian worldview point. For me, when I think of lust, I think of something beyond just a sexual and physical attraction and something that has negative connotations. For me lust is when you can't stop thinking about them, become consumed by them and become blinded to their faults as a result of the lust. They become perfect in your mind, can do no wrong, have no annoying habits, etc. It feels uncontrolled or becomes illicit in my cravings or desires. It goes beyond what is healthy and normal attraction that would lead someone to reach out and connect with that person.

Again, it might just be a matter of how you define the terms though. What you are describing doesn't sound bad to me, but I wouldn't call that lust either, I would label it sexual attraction. Interesting question though.

 

I've liked it, but I also want to post to recommend it - Thomas Aquinas had some incredible insights, well ahead of his time. Even if you don't agree with him, and even if you're not a Christian (I'm not!), his work is worth reading. It will make you rethink things that you've taken for granted.

Sadly, the religious world, which used to turn out first-rate thinkers by the bucketful, is now turning out little more than yellers, whiners, and postmodernists. You've literally got to go back hundreds of years to get to the good stuff. And boy, is it good!

 

In that link Aquinas says that sex and sexual attraction between married people cannot be lust, even if it is inordinate. Stange, cause that seems counter intuitive, but whilst I actually had trouble with accepting that at first, i think it has to do with categorisation. He says inordinate treatment of a spouse is immoral but for other reasons. I don't fully understand and need to read more I think, but I feel like understanding this is important to unlocking all this. Lots of reading to do.

 

Lust is one of the 7 deadly sins

 

Outer circle of Dante's hell

 

Lust or any strong attachment to anything sensual and material is a mental disease. Not a sin though.