Laurie and Debbie say:
Believers in a Judeo-Christian god must, by definition, believe that the world was designed by that god as (s)he wished it to be. The Latin phrase is “Deus Vult,” translated literally as “God wills it.” In this context, let’s
contrast a popular (although far from universal) Christian view of sexuality with what’s known about the animal kingdom:
Lehman Strauss at bible.org talks about homosexuality:
Any evil condemned in Scripture cannot be honoring to God. Homosexual religious leaders attempt to smooth over the breaks and rough places with Christian terminology so that a euphoria predominates, but God is not in it. A truly born again person, who loves and understands the Bible as God’s revelation to him, will not condone an evil that God condemns. “If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him” (I John 2:29). “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (II Timothy 2:19). Practicing homosexuals are engaged in a divinely forbidden evil.
Cartoonist Roxy Drew, on the other hand, contributes this from her “(Human) Sex is Boring” series:
So did God forget giraffes? Or decide it’s okay if your neck is ten feet long? (Hmm, is there a phallus joke there?) Or is the problem with Lehman Strauss?
And then there’s adultery, a Judeo-Christian sin so basic that it’s singled out in the Ten Commandments:
At Christians.org, we find:
Why should people refrain from adultery? Because God said so! And he said so for several obvious reasons. First of all, adultery adulterates. Sex is essentially pure. It is part of the creation that God pronounced good. But precisely because it is pure, it must be protected from adulteration. We need God’s pure sex law for the same reason we need pure food and drug laws. The laws protect us from contaminants that would destroy our health and happiness. The Bible is not against sex. To the contrary, it values sex enough to rescue it from adulteration.
And here’s Roxy Drew again:
Roxy Drew has a point: human sex is boring compared to so much of the wild and crazy sex of the animal and plant kingdoms. Who knows? Maybe some of our wilder efforts are an attempt to catch up to the “lesser beings.” And maybe Deus Vult.
Thanks to Annalee Newitz at io9 for the pointer to the delightful Roxy Drew.