Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 July 24

= July 24 =

Why do so many religions have negative views towards sex?
Many religions- or at least the more conservative/traditional denominations of religions- tend to attribute sinfulness and guilt to sex and other sexual acts. This is puzzling especially since sex is necessary for life. I would like to obtain resources on the sociological/anthropological (not necessarily the theological/ethical) origin of the sinfulness of sex. Thank you! 2600:1700:FBA0:3B80:2591:C7A7:5092:605A (talk) 02:57, 24 July 2020 (UTC)


 * We have articles asceticism and antisexualism. As a historical explanation, the influence of Gnosticism was very important -- Gnosticism actually occurred in both "antinomian" (indulgent) and "ascetic" forms, but the ascetic forms of Gnosticism were a very important influence on Mediterranean civilization in the early centuries A.D.  Gnosticism had no real influence on mainstream Christianity in theological doctrines, but it did have an influence in attitudes to sexuality... AnonMoos (talk) 03:44, 24 July 2020 (UTC)


 * Which religions? Christianity was very anti-sex from very early times, but the reasons were cultural rather than strictly theological. Judaism isn't anti-sex so far as I know, and I've read in various places that this is so (no doctrine of original sin, for example - but note that Christianity had no such doctrine either until it was defined by Augustine of Hippo). Of non-Western religions I know a little about Buddhism, and it certainly isn't anti-sex (Theravadin monks don't have sex, but they don't regard sex as evil). I think you might be approaching this from a Christian standpoint. Achar Sva (talk) 08:26, 24 July 2020 (UTC)


 * Successful religions generally don't argue against a broader society's ethics but at least pay lip service to the idea of trying to equal or exceed them. Even in a world without religion, agriculture is going to result in a surplus of goods that someone is going to be jealous of, animal husbandry is going to result in a more detailed knowledge of where babies come from, and these combined can easily result in men attempting to monopolize sex with their wives.  This isn't a universal trend, as many African groups formed the Matrilineal belt (though it does note that many of those groups become patrilineal with a rise in pastoralism).  Polyandry in Tibet could be suggested as another counter-example, but I'm pretty sure the brothers would get angry if their wife ran off with another man/men.  Throw in a (historical) lack of safe and effective birth control or treatments for STDs, along with awareness that childbirth is dangerous (if less so now than in the past), that more children means less food, and that sex makes some people do stupid things; and it doesn't take religion to make people have complex (and not entirely positive) views on sex. ...Also... child sexual abuse was actually the norm for much of the world throughout history, and the Church Fathers complaints about sexual immorality make a bit more sense in that light. Ian.thomson (talk) 09:37, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Maybe there should be a disclaimer that this book is taking its ideas from psychohistory which has some controversies. 93.136.116.73 (talk) 01:16, 25 July 2020 (UTC)
 * A useful book, thanks :). I have a pretty strong familiarity with one non-Western culture, and it brings to my mind the extent to which we assume so much behaviour as normal, simply because it's ours. Achar Sva (talk) 09:59, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
 * , your last sentence is is a profound and important observation, and the World would be a better place if more people were mindful of it more often. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.199.211.254 (talk) 18:25, 24 July 2020 (UTC)


 * Recently I initiated Draft:Sexual politics, requesting proactive contributions to expand the article, if you / those who, feel interested in the topic, Thanks Bookku (talk) 18:40, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I think you need to distinguish between the very minority fringe groups that thought all sex was bad and should always be avoided (e.g. Shakers), and the far more common attitude that sex was something to be regulated and controlled. (Plus intermediate attitudes such as "sex distracts people from God, so priests/monks/nuns/etc should be celibate, but obviously the laity need to keep reproducing"). Iapetus (talk) 16:24, 26 July 2020 (UTC)

Law enforcement and criminal justice system of Japan
I have some questions regarding the law enforcement/police and the criminal justice system of Japan:


 * 1) I have once heard someone claiming that one of the major reasons the crime rate in Japan is notably so low is because the police tends to prematurely close a lot of murder cases as suicides when they should not have according to the evidences. Is there any evidence supporting this notion?
 * 2) Is it true that Japanese prosecutors only ever prosecute anyone if they are 99%-100% sure to secure a conviction?
 * 3) Due to recent events in the United States and similar events before them, a significant amount of people have unfortunately been projecting their views of police and criminal justice system in general onto the main conflict of an ongoing highly popular shonen manga. What is the reputation of the Japanese police and criminal justice system among the general public in Japan?

StellarHalo (talk) 22:24, 24 July 2020 (UTC)


 * With its excessive reliance on confessions by suspects, and its almost 100% conviction rate, the Japanese system is quite odd compared to what is found in other countries in the world. In the notorious case of Carlos Ghosn, a CEO of a multinational corporation offended some in Japan by being compensated excessively lavishly by Japanese standards.  Despite the fact that he had not clearly and obviously broken any significant law, he was placed into the Japanese legal system, with lengthy pretrial detention and endless prosecutorial browbeating, and it did not end well... AnonMoos (talk) 23:16, 24 July 2020 (UTC)


 * With respect to the second question, that argument is a common counter to the claim that the Japanese criminal justice system is anything but fair to the accused. One counterpoint I've heard is that the difference in conviction rates between Japan and the United States comes down more to the fact that Japanese judges who acquit criminal defendants do not remain judges for terribly long. Whether there's much truth to that, I don't know; I suspect it's as provable as the claim that Japanese prosecutorial discretion is far more conservative than in the United States. My gut instinct is that the reason for the distinction comes down to two major factors: (1) the relative ease of invoking exclusionary remedies for unlawfully-obtained evidence in the United States; and (2) the availability of the criminal jury, which is highly unpredictable by nature. 199.66.69.67 (talk) 04:09, 25 July 2020 (UTC)