You have the right to remain topless

[error]

It seems simple enough to judge that sexual acts in public are a bad thing.  Does everyone agree with this?  I would have to look into ancient civilizations (the NATURAL type) and try to see the "sex laws" they had.  Hmmmmmm.  In the mean time, I won't be offended by boobies in public 

NOT all people agree with this, and of course it isn't quite so simple. How much of your revulsion to nudity is due to the culture imposed on us all, rather than anything "natural"?

[lastlady]

yes I was thinking the same thing. It seems tribes in other parts of the world have no issues with nudity. Didn't clothing start as something we needed for protectiion from the elements. If we lived in a warm climate we have no use for such things. I remember traveling and spending time in Greece. Women were topless as a rule and no one seemed to notice or care after a while. Why are vaginas and penises offensive? Conditioning and programming.

[MaineShark]

It seems simple enough to judge that sexual acts in public are a bad thing.  Does everyone agree with this?

No.  I might generally find it distasteful, but it is not an initiation of force, so it is not bad.  If you don't want to watch, look away.  Or buy the land and then you can tell people what they aren't allowed to do on it.

I would have to look into ancient civilizations (the NATURAL type) and try to see the "sex laws" they had.

None.  Or purely superstitious ones, if any (eg, you might be prohibited from having sex with an in-law, but not a blood relative).

Joe

[mvpel]

Certainly cultural norms and conditioning have something to do with it.

It's not that public nakedness is "revolting," I suspect many just find it to be in the same category as picking your nose or plucking your ear hair in public.

From a Jewish tradition, it has (put perhaps overly simply) to do with modesty as a manifestation of striving for holiness and dignity.

[SAK]

Yeah nudity doesn't bother me and I don't see too much of a problem with it.  I'm just not sure I'd want to come out of a restaurant with food in my hand and see two people humpin away like some freak show

[MaineShark]

Yeah nudity doesn't bother me and I don't see too much of a problem with it.  I'm just not sure I'd want to come out of a restaurant with food in my hand and see two people humpin away like some freak show

You don't have to want to see it.  You just have to refrain from putting a gun to their heads and demanding they stop.

Joe

[lastlady]

Never do I!! But think in a volunteer self governing society we don't need the government officers to inforce these things. If some folks were going at it in public there are many options that come to mind to encourage them to stop. Liberty and responsibility!!! We the People are responsible to act in a respectful way to each other.

[error]

Yeah nudity doesn't bother me and I don't see too much of a problem with it.  I'm just not sure I'd want to come out of a restaurant with food in my hand and see two people humpin away like some freak show

So don't go to the restaurant where the proprietor allows people to do that.

[Dreepa]

Yeah nudity doesn't bother me and I don't see too much of a problem with it.  I'm just not sure I'd want to come out of a restaurant with food in my hand and see two people humpin away like some freak show

Guess you guys have not eaten here:
http://www.nyrock.com/spc/1999/maison.asp

[error]

Guess you guys have not eaten here:
http://www.nyrock.com/spc/1999/maison.asp

How could we? It's not there anymore.

[tracysaboe]

Certainly cultural norms and conditioning have something to do with it.

It's not that public nakedness is "revolting," I suspect many just find it to be in the same category as picking your nose or plucking your ear hair in public.

From a Jewish tradition, it has (put perhaps overly simply) to do with modesty as a manifestation of striving for holiness and dignity.

From a Christian (or at least the way I was brought up Christian) perspective, it's not about offending people. It's that you should save as much as you can for your future spouce (or current spouce). So public nudity was looked down upon in Ancient Jewish and Christian cultures more because they cared about the person and felt it was self destructive behavior to their current and future intiment relationships. But you can't expect the non-believers to behave like Christians so certainly you shouldn't have laws about it. That's not going to convert anybody.

Tracy

[eques]

From a Christian (or at least the way I was brought up Christian) perspective, it's not about offending people. It's that you should save as much as you can for your future spouce (or current spouce). So public nudity was looked down upon in Ancient Jewish and Christian cultures more because they cared about the person and felt it was self destructive behavior to their current and future intiment relationships. But you can't expect the non-believers to behave like Christians so certainly you shouldn't have laws about it. That's not going to convert anybody.

Tracy

Tracy, do you have a source for this understanding of ancient cultures?  I would think that public nudity would be discouraged for a people who settled after being nomadic in extreme conditions such as are found in the middle east (assuming they weren't all that different than today's conditions).  It would have simply been unwise to expose one's body to the harsh environment.

As far as it being borne out of respect for current and future relationships, I have only studied a little bit about such culture.  But from what I have seen, that's not the attitude I find.  In that culture, a woman's public nudity is shameful to her father or her husband, not because of that woman's self-respect, but because she is the property of her father or her husband.

[MaineShark]

From a Christian (or at least the way I was brought up Christian) perspective, it's not about offending people. It's that you should save as much as you can for your future spouce (or current spouce). So public nudity was looked down upon in Ancient Jewish and Christian cultures more because they cared about the person and felt it was self destructive behavior to their current and future intiment relationships. But you can't expect the non-believers to behave like Christians so certainly you shouldn't have laws about it. That's not going to convert anybody.

I would suggest typing the phrase "christian naturist" into your favorite search engine, if you imagine that there is any scriptural support for that...

Joe

[lastlady]

God doesn't have a problem with the unclothed body, we do!!!

[tracysaboe]

From a Christian (or at least the way I was brought up Christian) perspective, it's not about offending people. It's that you should save as much as you can for your future spouce (or current spouce). So public nudity was looked down upon in Ancient Jewish and Christian cultures more because they cared about the person and felt it was self destructive behavior to their current and future intiment relationships. But you can't expect the non-believers to behave like Christians so certainly you shouldn't have laws about it. That's not going to convert anybody.

I would suggest typing the phrase "christian naturist" into your favorite search engine, if you imagine that there is any scriptural support for that...

Joe

I don't know why you have to be such a jerk and belittling and know-it-allish about everything. If you read what I wrote. "From a Christian (or at least the way I was brought up Christian) perspective," that means I'm not saying it's the final authority. I'm just trying to explain how many mainstream Christians think about it.

James: It's just kind of an exention of the "do not commit audultery" if other men (or women) are "visually prostituting you" then that can't be healthy for their marriage or future marriage.  It's why in the epistles (I think it's Timothy) Paul also tells women to not put their hair up fancy or where jewlery in Church -- because women should be their to worship god. not show off their own beauty.

Of course the bible never explicitly says anything about nudity itself per sae. Jesus said the real issue is your heart. "If a man lusts after a women, he has committed audultury with her in his heart." It's certainly a lot easier to not lust after a women if she's fully clothed. On the other hand -- the skanky stuff women wear sometimes is actually more enticing then simply being naked. And you can lust after somebody who's fully clothed too. Ultimately, everybody is responsible for gaurding their own thoughts.

Which is why naturists think that if everybody was naked, such things wouldn't be an issue. I don't have a problem with that belief system. Their's nothing Biblically that directly contradicts it.

Regarding women being property of "husband, father, brother, etc." Many anciet cultures believed that, but ancient Israel wasn't one of them. Their's nothing in the Old testament or New that ever states that. Although I'll admit in practice many of the levitician rules designed for cleanliness did put more of a burden on women then men.

Tracy