Nope, I'm not pansexual. I just think that language does not describe our sexuality quite as adequately as experience details.

Josh

Yes, you can.

Yes, I wouldn't say I'm the best at it. I try to avoid looking at girls especially with excessive skin or even just excessive curves. But that's my own struggle.

I've been reading a lot of Genesis and reading the book "Wild at Heart" and both are teaching me a lot about the Lord's creation and the beauty of women. The Lord is beautiful and I admire His beauty as David says in the Psalms. I do not lust after that beauty, but in physical form (women) I myself have had a hard time controlling it.

But just recently I met a really rad girl and we've been texting and chatting and talking on the phone a lot. I haven't seen a lot of pics of her, just her face. And even before that I thought she was beautiful, and after seeing her pictures it totally confirmed for me that I can appreciate beauty without lusting for her. She is the most beautiful girl I know.

I agree to some extent, but that argument goes for everything. We only have finite minds, so everything we discuss is going to be limited because we can only grasp limited concepts. However, there is a distinction between something that is sinful and something that is not that is made by our conscience. It is according to our conscience that we know when we lust (a sinful act) and when we are merely admiring beauty (a neutral act). So I think there is a clear difference here.



To some extent, possibly. But if so, that is a subconscious feeling. And I think lust is a sin, and therefore a conscious act.

Additionally, to those who say you cannot admire beauty without lust, take the example of just a photograph of an attractive girl's face. I think it is easy to find her image attractive, but possibly much harder to conjure up lustful thoughts with all the usual triggers gone?

No. I would say that all dualisms essentially deconstruct themselves.
"Present" and "Absence"
"Good" and "Evil"
"Man" and "Woman"
"Truth" and "Untruth"
"Speech" and "Writing"
etc etc.

The way they deconstruct themselves often happens when we pay closer attention to the detail of these concepts and when we challenge their boundaries and margins. Deconstruction happens when we try to think of one without the other, when we try to place one outside the other. Deconstruction happens when we are confronted with the inadequacy of language to really describe the world. Deconstruction moves towards a reversal of the polarities in order to challenge them, it moves towards a neutralization of the binary oppositions and to a relativization of the favour given to one over the other.

Josh

Yes, language is inadequate, but it is all we have to communicate with. You are expressing your views through ‘inadequate words’, but does that invalidate your argument? I don’t think so. Yes, words can be deconstructed, but there is also common understanding of what a word means – a meaning based on consensus. Essentially, when we communicate we are hoping that the other party attaches similar meaning to the words we use. So, when we use the words ‘beauty’ and ‘lust’, we both have a reasonable idea what those words entail. I am not arguing that we have a perfect grasp of the essentiality of words, but rather what you could pragmatically call a ‘working knowledge’.

Also, I would still maintain that good and evil do exist as absolutes. Perfection can still exist without imperfection, although we will only recognise it as perfection if there is imperfection to contrast it with. However, we don’t have perfection here on earth, which is maybe why all words are such imperfect messengers. The choice of whether to dispense with them because of their flaws, or to employ them in their flawed state is entirely yours though. I am strongly disinclined to believe that you refuse to employ any dualisms in day-to-day life!

I think lust is not necessarily bad. I mean, lust is the reason we r here!!!!!

Absolutely, I hardly ever see random people with lust, thankfully, it's such an annoying emotion. I have seen people who take my breath away though, who I just want to look at. Happens too often really, makes me sad

I'm sure its possible. I can do it sometimes, but...not in recent times. Satan is plaguing me with sexual temptations atm, and he presents me with the temptation to lust after any beautiful person, which is annoying.

A good friend of mine (who was female by the way) once said...

"If a guy says a girl is hot, he's lusting after her body. If he says she's pretty, he's still only looking on the outside. But if he says she's beautiful, he's looking into her eyes, and the eyes are the only part of a woman's body where anyone is going to see Jesus."


I liked that quote.

I like that to. You really can tell everything from the eyes.