| Masturbation in history and society There are depictions of male masturbation in prehistoric rock paintings around the world, though these are all entirely matters of interpretation. Most early people seem to have connected human sexuality with abundance in nature. A clay figurine of the 4th millennium BC from a temple site on the island of Malta, depicts a woman masturbating. However, in the ancient world depictions of male masturbation are far more common. Male masturbation became an even more important image in ancient Egypt: when performed by a god it could be considered a creative or magical act: the god Atum was believed to have created the universe by masturbating to ejaculation. The ancient Greeks had a more natural attitude toward masturbation than the Egyptians did, regarding the act as a normal and healthy substitute for other forms of sexual pleasure. They considered masturbation a safety valve against destructive sexual frustration. The Greeks also dealt with female masturbation in both their art and writings. [edit] There is no unambiguous mention of masturbation in the Bible. The word "onanism" refers to the biblical story of Onan, who was obliged but refused to consummate a levirate marriage with his dead brother's wife: "And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to
pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on
the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing
which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also."
(Genesis 38:7-9) The first divergence appears in the early doctrine put forth by Augustine of Hippo, who argued that sexual intercourse for pleasure was an exercise in the sin of lust. Normally a mere venial sin within the context of a marriage open to children, he argued that a contraceptive act rendered it grave and mortal, removing it from the extenuating context of marriage altogether (On Marriage and Concupiscence). Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church, went further and taught that masturbation was a graver sin than rape. In his masterwork, the Summa Theologiae, he divides the sin of lust into six categories: simple fornication, incest, adultery, seduction and rape and "the unnatural vice", further subdivided into masturbation, zoophilia, homosexuality, pedophilia, and non-procreative heterosexual sex. He then explains that "the unnatural vice," including masturbation, is clearly worse than the other five types of lust-based sins, for it is a sin against both nature and reason, whereas rape is merely a sin against reason alone. The "sin of Onan" – by way of Aquinas and those who followed him – became both synecdoche and euphemism for the many forms of non-procreational sex that were deemed sinful, an association that followed other attitudes toward sexuality across the Reformation and into the Protestant faiths. Protestant theologians only began shunning these teachings toward the middle of the 20th century, with some today even taking pro-masturbation viewpoints. Masturbation, however, is still viewed in Catholic dogma and by many denominations as an act of self indulgence and a sin of the flesh, making it a contentious issue to this day. Some scholars of Islam consider masturbation to be haraam (forbidden) in Islam, making its acceptability within Islamic societies uncertain. It has been reported by Rolling Stone [6] that a small Christian-right
group in America is encouraging people to wear a masturband to indicate
a commitment to abstinence from masturbation.
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