In Defence Of Ancient Middle Eastern Religions

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

No seriously, what you have in mind when you say "bronze age/stone age middle east views of sex" actually belongs to Judaea in the classical era, when greece and rome occupied it. Hellenistic Judaea was a place of sexual supression. No doubt the ancient middle east wasn't a great place to live when it came to unreasonable laws/punishments, and definitely wasn't great, nor when it came to slavery.

 

Though in defence of the bronze age middle east, in all its horribleness, it's not as bad as the abrahamic cultures!!!

 

When it came to prostitution, just go to "church", there are men and women there who are prostitutes to cure your itch:

http://books.google.com/books?id=WKoWblE4pd0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=sex+and+eroticism&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

Or on the battlefield, be like Gilgamesh and bring a buddy

 

Or if you are in Egypt, as long as you aren't already married, find a guy or girl who is attracted to you. Even the gods Horus and Seth had a sexual encounter, when they were supposed to be killing eachother.

 

Or if you are in Canaan, Ancient (real ancient) Israel, Ancient Judah (real ancient), you may be able to get a prostitute. Though in phoenicia for sure, there is alot of sexual freedom there, even temple prostitutes.

 

Ancient Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel especially, those weren't against sex because of religion, actually sex and religion to them went hand in hand. It wasn't until after the hellenistic control of Judaea that there was a problem with sex.

 

Which seems paradoxical, because Greece and Rome weren't anti-sex. Though Greece was once about supressing women's urges outside prostitutes.

[OpheliaGinger]

When the Semitic people starting to establish what is to be Judaism they wanted to separate themselves from the other religions, so they started to add the restrictions on sexuality to what we see today.

[lunaticheathen]

Awomen! Ancient societies were way sexier before Abrahamism came around!

Inanna is one sexay goddess, as is Hathor, who also had "temple prostitutes", AND midwives. It was Abraham's little insane cult that made sex, and by extension, women, dirty.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

When the Semitic people starting to establish what is to be Judaism they wanted to separate themselves from the other religions, so they started to add the restrictions on sexuality to what we see today.

Well which Judaism? The one of the kingdom of Judah or the one of monotheism? The two are mutually exclusive, and not the same at all lol.

 

From what little we know, Baal and YHWH were a epithet in ancient Judah for Hadad. And don't forget that he had a wife named Anat, or sometimes Asherah when the name YHWH was applied to a different god.

 

Awomen! Ancient societies were way sexier before Abrahamism came around!

Inanna is one sexay goddess, as is Hathor, who also had "temple prostitutes", AND midwives. It was Abraham's little insane cult that made sex, and by extension, women, dirty.

Indeed.

 

They also didn't have genocidal gods. Though they were wrathful at times. In one myth, one of the reasons wrath was brought upon people, is a law was made that somehow affected the homosexual prostitutes of the temple. I think that gays are in good hands if they worship Inanna, the only time she would bring wrath upon sodom is if they banned homosexuality.

 

Though the biggest problems with the semitic pagan religions is that in some ways, they were no different than the Bible's god. Though far less common, and definitely not a central theme like you find in the Bible, they were alot like the one in the Bible.

 

It's just that they were far less bad. They were more like the Greek Gods, but a bit nicer than them even.