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Topic 3: Religious views
on sexual behaviour
and human
relationships
Objective:
• Introduction to sexual ethics and
relationships
Definition:
 Sexual Ethics (also referred to
as sexual morality)
Where do we get
 The constellation of moral and ethical
our ideas
from?
considerations
and obligations
that a person or
group has in the context of consensual
penetrative sexual activity
 morality with respect to sexual relations
IN 584 Lyon France, A Catholic COUNCIL
DEBATED THE QUESTION:
“Are women human?”
After a vote women were
declared to be human by 32
votes to 31.
For a long time after this many Christians believed
that women had no souls and were less holy than
men. Through the centuries there have been many
examples of inequality and sexism.
‘Church of England votes no
to women bishops’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz6ILmFl3zE
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbSwSjxUeI
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw_h_HDqzFQ&playnext=1
&list=PL5293C4B2FCFB48DF
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shWDY0Cjves&feature=rel
ated
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oftOCN1jkNo&feature=rela
ted
Introducing
sexual ethics
Sexual ethics
 ‘is this: that sex, like any other physical
act, is not inherently good or bad, that it
may be used to cause suffering and used
to cause joy. Therefore, there ought to be
no restrictions upon sex, except only
those restrictions which prevent
suffering.’
 Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737– June 8, 1809) was an EnglishAmerican political activist, author, political theorist and
revolutionary.
Sexual Ethics
• TASKS: 1. What issues/taboos can you think
of to do with sexual ethics? Write as many
of these down as you can
• 2. Now highlight as many of these that are
still MAJOR issues today
• 3. Can you divide sexuality / sexual acts into
those that are legal and illegal?
Sexual Ethics
LEGAL
• Having sex in private
• Having sex with many
people or partners
• Adultery
• Homosexuality
• Prostitution
• Paying for sex
• Most forms of pornography
ILLEGAL
• Having sex in public
• Indecent exposure (there must be
intent)
• Marriage to more than one
person (polygamy)
• Sex under the age of 16 (specific
laws protect under 13s)
• Sex without consent (rape)
• Kerb Crawling
H. L. Hart (1907 – 1992)
• Draws a boundary between public and
private sexual acts – separating the
acceptable and unacceptable
On the other hand, he suggests that no
private sexual act could harm anyone
‘apart from a few neurotic persons
who are literally “made ill” by it’
Do you agree? What might be
unacceptable?
Sexual intercourse
between husband
and wife is not
immoral, but if it
takes place in public
it is an affront to
human decency’
Discuss
…In sharp contrast to misogynous
 Taboos
today Athens, Sparta did not
(hatred
of women)
disdain
and ridicule
women's
sexuality, incest,
but

cannibalism,
female
circumcision,
Aristotle; blamed all of Sparta's ills on the fact that
respected
it.
etc.
the paedophilia,
women were inmasturbation,
control of things
– a fact that he
attributed to the lack of homosexuality in Spartan
society Sparta's
generally.laws recognized women's
sexuality
and were
encouraged
it withintaboos or were
 Consider,
these always
marriage.
In the
rest of that
Greece,
wivesthem?.
who
there some
societies
accepted
liked sex were disdained, and men sought
sexual pleasure outside of marriage with
slaves, boys, and prostitutes.
Ancient Egyptian Sexuality
By Caroline Seawright
 ..Revel in pleasure while your life endures
And deck your head with myrrh. Be richly clad
In white and perfumed linen; like the gods
anointed be; and never weary grow
In eager quest of what your heard desires
do as it prompts you...
 Sexuality in ancient Egypt was open, untainted
by guilt. Sex was an important part of life - from
birth to death and rebirth. Singles and married
couples made love. The Egyptians even
believed in sex in the afterlife. Sex was not
taboo... Even the Egyptian religion was filled
with tales of adultery, incest, homosexuality
and masturbation...
Many have concluded that incest was rife.
Really…Surely not?
 Roman census declarations attest to
many husbands and wives being brother
and sister. The most well known of these
relationships were in the royal family.
 The famous Cleopatra VII was married
to her younger brother,
 Greek law allowed marriage between a
brother and sister if they had different
mothers (3,100 bc – 900 ac)
Modern sexual taboos and
their morality.
 Things today which are detested by some:
masturbation, homosexuality, prostitution,
paedophilia, nudity, zoophilia
(sexual attraction towards animals), rape and
incest.
 Should we accept a doctrine simply because it
was taught to us by parents and society, no
matter how delicate or sensitive an issue it may
be.
Michael Foucault (1926 1984) French philosopher
Argues that ‘normal/abnormal are not
meaningful terms; ethics are to be thought of
as practices relative to time and place’.
Moreover,
‘illustrates how Western society since that
time has increasingly developed controls
over sex by arbitrarily defining what is
normal’.
Sexual ethics
 ‘is this: that sex, like any other physical
act, is not inherently good or bad, that it
may be used to cause suffering and used
to cause joy. Therefore, there ought to be
no restrictions upon sex, except only
those restrictions which prevent
suffering.’
 Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737– June 8, 1809) was an EnglishAmerican political activist, author, political theorist and
revolutionary.
 The Inuit "People" are a group of culturally
similar indigenous peoples inhabiting
the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada,
the United States, and eastern Siberia.
 Inuit tribes have altogether different beliefs about what
constitutes illegal and moral/immoral incest
A victimless crime is a term used to
refer to actions that have been ruled illegal but do not directly violate or
threaten the rights of any other individual.
 Some groups were especially served by wife
sharing practices, as a key to the survival of
their tribes, as from a social standpoint the
limited population had long-before broken
down the incest taboos with respect to kinship.
In these villages, relations with family members
were accepted, because without this kind of
relationship the same people would have
disappeared long ago.
Female Genital Mutilation is considered by its practitioners to be
an essential part of raising a girl properly—girls are regarded as
having been cleansed by the removal of "male" body parts. It
ensures pre-marital virginity and inhibits extra-marital sex
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_circumcision
To think about…
 The Origins of War in Child Abuse by
Lloyd deMause
Objection:
 An objection to a sexual act is the fact that its thought
may be disturbing. Some people may find it disgusting
that two people can consent to things which they find
abominable.
 Although it is true that there may be no suffering
exchanging in such a sexual act, they detest it on the
grounds that it is grotesque.
 This objection can quite clearly be seen: an action being
ugly does not mean that it is immoral, just as an action
being beautiful does not mean it is moral.
Natural law…
An action is either natural or unnatural.
 The question is, if something is natural or unnatural,
does that actually have any impact on moral
implications?
 Such as a murderer's actions being natural, would that
mean that they were any less immoral, or a saviour's
actions being unnatural, would that mean that they
were any less moral?
 There is no logical or humane
reason why men should not be
allowed to have sexual relations with
each other.
 Are there… What do you think…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYwZsp
uE3pM
Key questions
1.
Should religion have anything to do
with sexual behaviour?
2.
Is religion too patriarchal to be the
basis of a sexual ethics in the modern
world?
3.
Should sexual ethics be based on
what the majority of people in society
think to be true?
4.
Are religious views of sexuality and
marriage hampered by backward
ideas of what is natural or fixed ideas
of the roles of men and women?