Evidence for God from Science

I was wondering if you guys thought that sex stories are better and safer than porn. Is it still a sin or bad to read them?

Also, I have been reading several japanese manga (comics) that have gay content in them. One of them is 'Desire', about male highschool lovers, which has some mild sexual content in it and one is a no-nudity/sex-free story called 'Only The Ring Finger Knows' about two guys in love. I enjoy the stories quite a bit but I am not sure if it is right or not to read them.

Thanks.

Ark~Magic wrote:I was wondering if you guys thought that sex stories are better and safer than porn. Is it still a sin or bad to read them?

Also, I have been reading several japanese manga (comics) that have gay content in them. One of them is 'Desire', about male highschool lovers, which has some mild sexual content in it and one is a no-nudity/sex-free story called 'Only The Ring Finger Knows' about two guys in love. I enjoy the stories quite a bit but I am not sure if it is right or not to read them.

Thanks.

Does it lead you into Lust? Then acting upon that Lust? Remember you are putting those thoughts into your mind. After it goes into your mind it tries to plant roots in there. It can cause more Turmoil then what it is worth.

My Thoughts are to become Pure as a White Robe. If your Mother/Father, GF/GM, or even a 5 year old was there reading the same Story would that be ok? Think if Jesus was right beside you would there be a problem Remember being a Christian is a Narrow but Fulfilling Road. I think of it this way. If it is not educational and fulfilling to my mind don't read it!

In Christ

Good comments bizzt. I once read this:

The mind insensibly [unconsciously] is affected by the stream of thoughts passing through it.

It is necessary therefore to keep that stream as pure as possible.

We underestimate the power of what goes into our minds.

Ark~Magic wrote:I was wondering if you guys thought that sex stories are better and safer than porn. Is it still a sin or bad to read them?

Also, I have been reading several japanese manga (comics) that have gay content in them. One of them is 'Desire', about male highschool lovers, which has some mild sexual content in it and one is a no-nudity/sex-free story called 'Only The Ring Finger Knows' about two guys in love. I enjoy the stories quite a bit but I am not sure if it is right or not to read them.

Thanks.

What you are describing isn't sex stories like you said one was MILD the other had NO nudity or sex so what's the problem? Don't let the homophobic extremists (and there are plenty on this site unfortunately) brainwash you with their outdated ungodly bigotry. It took me awhile to realise that although they like to shout their mouths off and stereotype all Christians as anti-gay, just as the like to steorotype all gays as sex obsessed promiscious monsters, there are literally MILLIONS of Christians who don't have a problem with homosexuality! God can accept people but he cant accept something like this? Doesn't make much sense does it! Don't forget people once used the Bible in exactly the same way to put down blacks (some still do) and I don't consider those people to be any better than the current crowd, they've just switched from one prejiduce to another. It's not as if you are reading stories about incest or bestiality lovers now that would truely be sick!

ouafsa wrote:

Ark~Magic wrote:I was wondering if you guys thought that sex stories are better and safer than porn. Is it still a sin or bad to read them?

Also, I have been reading several japanese manga (comics) that have gay content in them. One of them is 'Desire', about male highschool lovers, which has some mild sexual content in it and one is a no-nudity/sex-free story called 'Only The Ring Finger Knows' about two guys in love. I enjoy the stories quite a bit but I am not sure if it is right or not to read them.

Thanks.

What you are describing isn't sex stories like you said one was MILD the other had NO nudity or sex so what's the problem? Don't let the homophobic extremists (and there are plenty on this site unfortunately) brainwash you with their outdated ungodly bigotry. It took me awhile to realise that although they like to shout their mouths off and stereotype all Christians as anti-gay, just as the like to steorotype all gays as sex obsessed promiscious monsters, there are literally MILLIONS of Christians who don't have a problem with homosexuality! God can accept people but he cant accept something like this? Doesn't make much sense does it! Don't forget people once used the Bible in exactly the same way to put down blacks (some still do) and I don't consider those people to be any better than the current crowd, they've just switched from one prejiduce to another. It's not as if you are reading stories about incest or bestiality lovers now that would truely be sick!

It is not about the fact you are Homosexual or not it is about the Sin that lies behind that desire.Rom 1:27-32 Nobody likes what the Bible says about our Lives but it is still there and it is still Truth! You can call it Anti-Gay or whatever but Sin is Death and without Jesus Christ we would not be alive Spiritually.

We also must Love our Brother
"1Jo 4:21 And2532 this5026 commandment1785 have2192 we from575 him,846 That2443 he who loveth25 God2316 love25 his848 brother80 also.2532"

Does that love not mean to help lead him toward Spirtual Fulfillment, Godly Wisdom, etc...

In Christ

bizzt wrote:

ouafsa wrote:

Ark~Magic wrote:I was wondering if you guys thought that sex stories are better and safer than porn. Is it still a sin or bad to read them?

Also, I have been reading several japanese manga (comics) that have gay content in them. One of them is 'Desire', about male highschool lovers, which has some mild sexual content in it and one is a no-nudity/sex-free story called 'Only The Ring Finger Knows' about two guys in love. I enjoy the stories quite a bit but I am not sure if it is right or not to read them.

Thanks.

What you are describing isn't sex stories like you said one was MILD the other had NO nudity or sex so what's the problem? Don't let the homophobic extremists (and there are plenty on this site unfortunately) brainwash you with their outdated ungodly bigotry. It took me awhile to realise that although they like to shout their mouths off and stereotype all Christians as anti-gay, just as the like to steorotype all gays as sex obsessed promiscious monsters, there are literally MILLIONS of Christians who don't have a problem with homosexuality! God can accept people but he cant accept something like this? Doesn't make much sense does it! Don't forget people once used the Bible in exactly the same way to put down blacks (some still do) and I don't consider those people to be any better than the current crowd, they've just switched from one prejiduce to another. It's not as if you are reading stories about incest or bestiality lovers now that would truely be sick!

It is not about the fact you are Homosexual or not it is about the Sin that lies behind that desire.Rom 1:27-32 Nobody likes what the Bible says about our Lives but it is still there and it is still Truth! You can call it Anti-Gay or whatever but Sin is Death and without Jesus Christ we would not be alive Spiritually.

We also must Love our Brother
"1Jo 4:21 And2532 this5026 commandment1785 have2192 we from575 him,846 That2443 he who loveth25 God2316 love25 his848 brother80 also.2532"

Does that love not mean to help lead him toward Spirtual Fulfillment, Godly Wisdom, etc...

In Christ

Well there's certainly more than one way to interpretite the Bible. You choose to read your own personal prejiduces into the ancient texts, well that's fine but your asertion that it is a sin is just your opinion, there are plenty that disagree and its strange that something that is allegedly such a big sin is commented on (in the Bible) so infrequently and in such a wishy washy manor, how a lot of the Bibles teachings are completely ignored or discredited and how for something that is supposedly a sin Jesus remained completely silent about it. It's hard to believe Romans has anything to do with homosexuality today, seeing how it describes the people and seeing how most gays are perfectly decent individuals and seeing as the people in Romans were heterosexual, at least to start with, which doesn't describe gays at all. Most remarkable of all, are those translations (or mistranslations) which contain the word homosexual when the word wasn't even invented until the 19th century! I'm not saying its a sin or it isn't im saying the issue is not so clear cut and there are strong arguments on both sides of the equasion.

Well there's certainly more than one way to interpretite the Bible. You choose to read your own personal prejiduces into the ancient texts, well that's fine but your asertion that it is a sin is just your opinion, there are plenty that disagree and its strange that something that is allegedly such a big sin is commented on (in the Bible) so infrequently and in such a wishy washy manor, how a lot of the Bibles teachings are completely ignored or discredited and how for something that is supposedly a sin Jesus remained completely silent about it.

Did you also forget the passage that says that marriage is only to be condoned between men & women and the thing about homosexuality being an abomination is still valid because it is abnormal (at least the sexual and marriage parts).

And there were alot of things that Jesus didn't speak about, but he has always been the same God both then and now in the Bible. I mean, did Jesus speak about abortion and euthanasia?

It's hard to believe Romans has anything to do with homosexuality today, seeing how it describes the people and seeing how most gays are perfectly decent individuals and seeing as the people in Romans were heterosexual, at least to start with, which doesn't describe gays at all. Most remarkable of all, are those translations (or mistranslations) which contain the word homosexual when the word wasn't even invented until the 19th century! I'm not saying its a sin or it isn't im saying the issue is not so clear cut and there are strong arguments on both sides of the equasion.

Stop trying to sound smart. Whatever the original greek or hebrew words are used for homosexual, were translated into whatever in English. They may have had a different word for it in the older biblical translations (can somebody give me more info?) but it doesn't matter.

Dude, I'm gay for the love of God and I'm not even gullible to buy into the [nonsense] that it's genetic or even worse, Chosen. And you know I think it's OK to show love to a guy but when it becomes a sexual thing it's a sin and you're crossing the boundaries. And yes, not all homos are bad people, they don't hate us for feeling that way, more for becoming involved in the lifestyle like sexual/marriage type stuff. But at the same time there are alot of homos who tend to be arrogant and selfish (at least alot of the ones I know >:\) but that has nothing to do with Christianity's teachings.

Paul, in writing to the Philippians, had this to say to them:

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

I like reading a number of books by one author, then moving on to another author and reading a number of that person's books, and so on.

One time I was reading some books written by Tami Hoag. After having finished my third one, I realized I was feeling rather "dragged down" and pessimistic, not my usual optimistic happy self. It wasn't until I started the fourth book that it occurred to me what was happening.
All these books had a kind of sameness to them... they were all rather seedy, depicted coarse and vulgar characters, and kind of wallowed in poverty, ugliness, crime and unpleasantness.
I then wondered what on earth I was doing reading this kind of stuff if it was dragging me down. I didn't bother to finish the 4th book and I have not read any more of them since.

I think the apostle Paul was on to something with his words to the Philippians. We know the saying "you are what you eat" but I think the same can be said to some extent about what else you put in your body, or in this case, into your mind.
If you spend a lot of time immersing yourself in stuff that a wee voice from your conscience starts niggling you over, questioning if this is really wholesome and constructive and healthy for you, then you are probably putting yourself at risk of dragging yourself down.
Changing your diet of books, magazines, movies, computer games, whatever, to something more "pure" (noble, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, etc) - or just right off whatever subject that affects you unduly - can help swing you into a better state of mind with less direct temptation to sin.

We are actually called by God to pursue righteousness, not to stay stuck in those things that tempt us away from Him.

2 Timothy 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

That's really hard, I know, but it is what is asked of us regardless.

So, back to your original question, AM, and maybe your answer is already there if you listen to your conscience and especially if you read more of Paul's letters to the early churches where he gives lots of divinely inspired advice on how a follower of Christ is to conduct himself. If the answer is that these things do not cause you to sin, then they might well be safe for you. But keep asking yourself... do they lead you towards righteousness, faith, love and peace? That will be the real test of your answer. I do not know your answer for you, but I suspect you will discover it yourself if you are prepared to listen to that little voice inside you.

I hope this response is of some help to you.

Ark~Magic wrote:
Did you also forget the passage that says that marriage is only to be condoned between men & women and the thing about homosexuality being an abomination is still valid because it is abnormal (at least the sexual and marriage parts).

And there were alot of things that Jesus didn't speak about, but he has always been the same God both then and now in the Bible. I mean, did Jesus speak about abortion and euthanasia?

What verse is that? I don't remember that! Abortion and euthanasia are just fancy names for murder that society has come up with to try and kid themselves that they aren't really forms of murder, so yeah I'm pretty sure Jesus would have spoken out against murder.

Stop trying to sound smart. Whatever the original greek or hebrew words are used for homosexual, were translated into whatever in English. They may have had a different word for it in the older biblical translations (can somebody give me more info?) but it doesn't matter.

I'm not trying to sound anything. The simple fact is that sexuality didnt even become a concept until well into the 19th century and there was NO words for homosexuality when the Bible was written! There were words that have been mistranslated to mean it but they dont, words that have meanings such as soft, pedophiles, prositutes, perverts etc that takes a pretty bigoted mind to then use these words as stand ins for homosexual.

Dude, I'm gay for the love of God and I'm not even gullible to buy into the [nonsense] that it's genetic or even worse, Chosen. And you know I think it's OK to show love to a guy but when it becomes a sexual thing it's a sin and you're crossing the boundaries. And yes, not all homos are bad people, they don't hate us for feeling that way, more for becoming involved in the lifestyle like sexual/marriage type stuff. But at the same time there are alot of homos who tend to be arrogant and selfish (at least alot of the ones I know >:\) but that has nothing to do with Christianity's teachings.

Theres no real evidence its genetic yet, it could be at least partially who knows? It doesnt need to be genetic to be unchosen. I think we all pretty much understand that the feelings arent chosen and the chose is acting on those feelings or not, but even thats not much of a choice. Personally im celibate out of choice. That's my choice. It's not so much a religious thing, thats just how I am, but religion is a important consideration and factor none the less.

ouafsa wrote:[I'm not trying to sound anything. The simple fact is that sexuality didnt even become a concept until well into the 19th century and there was NO words for homosexuality when the Bible was written! There were words that have been mistranslated to mean it but they dont, words that have meanings such as soft, pedophiles, prositutes, perverts etc that takes a pretty bigoted mind to then use these words as stand ins for homosexual.

This is wrong Sodomy comes from the perversion of those in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Leviticus 18:22 - Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Genesis 19

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: 5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. 6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, 7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. 8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. 9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. 10 But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. 11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door. 12 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: 13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.

ouafsa wrote:

Ark~Magic wrote:
Did you also forget the passage that says that marriage is only to be condoned between men & women and the thing about homosexuality being an abomination is still valid because it is abnormal (at least the sexual and marriage parts).

And there were alot of things that Jesus didn't speak about, but he has always been the same God both then and now in the Bible. I mean, did Jesus speak about abortion and euthanasia?

What verse is that? I don't remember that! Abortion and euthanasia are just fancy names for murder that society has come up with to try and kid themselves that they aren't really forms of murder, so yeah I'm pretty sure Jesus would have spoken out against murder.

Stop trying to sound smart. Whatever the original greek or hebrew words are used for homosexual, were translated into whatever in English. They may have had a different word for it in the older biblical translations (can somebody give me more info?) but it doesn't matter.

I'm not trying to sound anything. The simple fact is that sexuality didnt even become a concept until well into the 19th century and there was NO words for homosexuality when the Bible was written! There were words that have been mistranslated to mean it but they dont, words that have meanings such as soft, pedophiles, prositutes, perverts etc that takes a pretty bigoted mind to then use these words as stand ins for homosexual.

Dude, I'm gay for the love of God and I'm not even gullible to buy into the [nonsense] that it's genetic or even worse, Chosen. And you know I think it's OK to show love to a guy but when it becomes a sexual thing it's a sin and you're crossing the boundaries. And yes, not all homos are bad people, they don't hate us for feeling that way, more for becoming involved in the lifestyle like sexual/marriage type stuff. But at the same time there are alot of homos who tend to be arrogant and selfish (at least alot of the ones I know >:\) but that has nothing to do with Christianity's teachings.

Theres no real evidence its genetic yet, it could be at least partially who knows? It doesnt need to be genetic to be unchosen. I think we all pretty much understand that the feelings arent chosen and the chose is acting on those feelings or not, but even thats not much of a choice. Personally im celibate out of choice. That's my choice. It's not so much a religious thing, thats just how I am, but religion is a important consideration and factor none the less.

Rom 1:27 And5037 likewise3668 also2532 the3588 men,730 leaving863 the3588 natural5446 use5540 of the3588 woman,2338 burned1572 in1722 their848 lust3715 one toward another;240, 1519 men730 with1722 men730 working2716 that which is unseemly,808 and2532 receiving618 in1722 themselves1438 that recompense489 of their848 error4106 which3739 was meet.1163
Rom 1:28 And2532 even as2531 they did not3756 like1381 to retain2192 God2316 in1722 their knowledge,1922 God2316 gave them over3860, 846 to1519 a reprobate96 mind,3563 to do4160 those things which are not convenient;2520, 3361
Rom 1:29 Being filled4137 with all3956 unrighteousness,93 fornication,4202 wickedness,4189 covetousness,4124 maliciousness;2549 full3324 of envy,5355 murder,5408 debate,2054 deceit,1388 malignity;2550 whisperers,5588
Rom 1:30 Backbiters,2637 haters of God,2319 despiteful,5197 proud,5244 boasters,213 inventors2182 of evil things,2556 disobedient545 to parents,1118
Rom 1:31 Without understanding,801 covenant breakers,802 without natural affection,794 implacable,786 unmerciful:415
Rom 1:32 Who3748 knowing1921 the3588 judgment1345 of God,2316 that3754 they which commit4238 such things5108 are1526 worthy514 of death,2288 not3756 only3440 do4160 the same,846 but235 (2532) have pleasure4909 in them that do4238 them.