God, Religion and Sex
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
19 January 2026
This refers to, 'Fear or Faith? How The 'Threat of Female Sexuality' Was Invented and Why Islam Rejects It.' It's not just female sexuality in the Quran but sexuality itself that is looked down upon by all man-made religions and their man-written scriptures. All religions have something to say about sex, and it rarely coincides with scientific knowledge of sex and sexuality. Theology has not advanced an inch in the last 1,000 years. How much respect does a profession deserve if it cannot add to the knowledge and understanding of man? Humans love sex. Both men and women are wired to be sexually responsive. Sex is the social glue of the human species. It takes heavy-handed training or trauma to kill a human's sex drive. Religion has that power. Sexual training in guilt, shame, and fear begins virtually at birth by sexualizing nudity.
The religious signal is that nudity is always sexual and the body must be covered for modesty. The Adam and Eve story is taught to young children even though they have no way to know what it means.
People develop a conscience with or without religion. Our culture teaches murder and cheating are wrong; we don't need religion to know this. Guilt comes from a different place in our mental experience, a place that is independent of general cultural training and directly related to religious indoctrination.
That is why two people may feel guilt about different things while being equally convinced that cheating and murder are wrong.
While [female genital mutilation] may not have originated with Islam, it has become an integral part of the religious practice in many regions tied to notions of male dominance and control of female sexuality.
The point is: Sex and sexuality are anthemas to all faiths. Wherever sexually restrictive religions invade, they bring the tools of repression with them - fear of punishment, shame if caught, guilt that the deity watches and terror of punishment. Islam, Christianity and Judaism, with their patriarchal, asexual god, have systematically overcome local sexual ideas throughout the world and infected cultures with sex-negative practices.
In the Christian view, sex was an unclean act. Ask Christians, "Did Jesus have sex?" and watch their nonverbal response. Or ask, "Did Peter enjoy sex with his wife?" or "Did Mary and Martha, 'whom Jesus loved,' ever enjoy a good orgasm?" Such questions do not compute in the Christian mind. The Christian founders are seen as asexual.
The same can be said about Hinduism and Eastern faiths. Hindu gods and goddesses can indulge in rampant sex but the followers follow celibacy to make those libertine gods happy! Indra, the king of gods, disguised himself as the sage Gautam to seduce his much younger and ravishing wife Ahilya while the sage was away. When Gautam returned, he discovered the act and cursed Ahilya to become a stone, and Indra to have his body covered in eyes (or vaginas in some versions).
Ahilya was later freed from the curse by Rama during his Vanvaas of 14 years. Ahilya was NOT completely innocent as she knew that it was not her much older husband, sage Gautam but Indra or someone else who was having sex with her! Jay Ho!
Digambar Jain sadhus will try throughout their lives not to get even an accidental hard-on as they roam around naked and the very sight is so offensive. Monks of Swaminarayan sect don't even look at women lest carnal thoughts should overwhelm them. Buddhism, which also has Vajrayana sect (similar to Tantra sect of Hinduism; primarily based upon sex), also doesn't allow female monks or the entry of a woman in the Buddhist monasteries. The reason being female sexuality that's an impediment to their sadhana.
Wherever religious ideas are taught, there are higher levels of sex abuse, child abuse, divorce and spouse abuse. If we wish to address the problems associated with sexual crime, abuse and harassment, the place to start is in solid, non-religious, sexual education of children and adolescents. This means that religious ideas about homosexuality, masturbation, male superiority, female purity, etc., must be directly challenged.
The best thing one can do for one's sex life is to leave religion. Fear is the foreplay of religion. If done right, it interferes with all aspects of human sexual pleasure. In short, whether it's male or female sexuality, all religions and societies fill you with a deep sense of guilt. Religious training and indoctrination creates internal states that are in conflict with natural urges and drives. The more a religion makes a person feel guilty and insecure, the harder the person works for the religion.
Sex is nature's most benevolent gift to mankind. Alas, religion degenerated it into an unforgivable sin. Religious programming has the power to distort normal, natural and intensely pleasurable behaviour into something inconceivably disgusting. Remember, there's no pleasure even remotely comparable to sex. Sex is the apex of all human pleasures. If you deny it, you deceive yourself.
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URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/god-religion-and-sex-/d/138489
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