The Anchoress on Sexuality

This Anchoress post is a must read, especially toward the end, here is a teaser:

I think one of evil'’s greatest triumph's has been to take people'’s understanding of sex outside of the realm of the spirit and keep it solidly in the camp of the physical. to reduce it to a few soundbites of personal empowerment, some adolescent giggles and a few sharp grunts. To mischaracterise sex as “dirty” was a failing of the Christian church. In doing so it opened itself up for the sort of mindless, reactionary silliness we have witnessed since the '“sexual revolution' decided that sex was not '“dirty'” but '“good clean fun.'”

I agree that sex should be more than physical pleasure, and also that creating a view of sexuality that was dirty, as opposed to holy, was a huge mistake the Catholic Church made. Even without accepting the religious views of anyone though, the concept that sex should be more than a physical thing is something that I think can be logically defended quite strongly. Most people view humanity as both a natural organism, a brutish animal, and something more. It is obvious that the animal part of us assigns great importance to sex. It is also obvious that we have adapted in such a way to make sex an emotional, as well as experience expirience. Anyone who has, or knows anyone who has, succumbed to the 'virgin stupids' knows that purely physical sexuality can, and often does, have an immense emotional effect on us. It is reasonablee to note that a huge amount of societal evolution has gone into establishing monogamy as the norm. Obviously a portion of this is the need for human children, incredibly dependant compared to other animals, to be raised by at least two people. Birth can alleviate this need, but to assume that children are the only reason that successful human societies carefully channel sexual activity seems to be risky. It is no great leap to hypothesize that human societies will be strong, and humans themselves happier, when sexuality is treated as more than just a way to physically get off. Hedonistic lifestyles glitter on the surface, but most engaged in them seem deeply unhappy, and unfulfilled.