Understanding Human Sexuality

For the ancient Greeks,the warrior class could be considered hedonist while the intellectual class could be considered more at the ascetic end.

Overall,Jewish religion holds sexuality in positive regard when it is part of married love and affection.

The large number of sexual regulations in the Old Testament and the position of the early Christian Church can be considered responses to their cultural context.

For much of the history of the Christian Church,the official position toward sex in and out of marriage has been to view it as a natural part of life.

Humanism and its view toward sexuality is basically a subset of the Roman Catholic view of sex.

Islam promotes contraception and family planning.

Hinduism gives blanket approval to hedonism and sexual pleasure.

In recent years,ethicists have begun to rethink the morality of nonmarital sexuality in that their conclusions are different than the biblical tradition which has supported Western ethics limiting sexual intercourse only to marriage.

Issues relating to the abortion controversy in Canada have been pretty much solved since religious writings by St.Thomas Aquinas were found indicating that a fetus did not gain a soul (i.e.,ensoulment)until the third month after conception.

Religious and sexual issues relating to homosexuality indicate across-the-board acceptance among Protestants,but not by the Catholic Church,over the last several decades.

The trend among many of the "moderate" mainstream Protestant denominations is toward qualified acceptance or full acceptance of homosexuals.

For full acceptance of homosexuals into their religions,Quakers,Unitarians and Roman Catholics are exceptionally accepting.

In Canada,applicants for permanent residency are required to have HIV testing as part of their medical exam.

Artificial insemination by husband (AIH)does not create as many ethical concerns for most as compared to artificial insemination of a donor egg and a donor sperm (AID).

The issue of therapeutic cloning has not raised ethical concerns because it is not about reproduction.

The sexual rights put forward by the World Health Organization are carefully crafted to be consistent with the culture and religious beliefs of all current societies.

Sexual rights are an extension of basic human rights.

We all have some system of moral principles,such as what we think of as being "good or bad" or "right or wrong." We use them every day.This makes us

If we consider ethics to be a system of moral principles that we use in part to determine our sexual beliefs and behaviour,then religion should be considered as

________ is a moral system based on maximizing pleasure and avoiding pain.