From: mbb@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (martin.brilliant)
Subject: Re: Theological Defense of Nudism
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 20:18:11 GMT

From article <1992Nov14.081345.71120@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu>, by fc03@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (Frederick W. Chapman):
> ....
> "Lust" is NOT the same thing as sexual arrousal.  "Lust" is NOT the same
> thing as sexual attraction.  "Lust" is NOT the same thing as sexual desire,
> in and of itself.  "Lust" is NOT the same thing as enjoying the sight of a
> naked body in a sexual way, as in eroticism....
> 
> "Lust" IS desire that is *BOTH* INORDINATE *AND* INAPPROPIATE -- an intense
> desire for something, which if realized, would violate a standard of
> morality....  "Lust" ... deals with one's inward attitude rather than one's
> outward compliance with moral standards....  By
> a natural extension of this argument, we must infer that there are really
> 18 commandments, the second 9 of which assert that you will not "really,
> really wish" you could violate the first 9.

That may be a Christian attitude, but as a secular humanist, I
absolutely reject it as a notion of ethics.  I live by a social
contract - you and I treat one another decently because we have to
live together in the same world.  In terms of that contract, I don't
care what you think, and you don't even know, let alone care, what I
think.  If I don't bed down with your spouse, and you don't bed down
with mine, and we can all laugh and work and eat and drink and play
together, it makes no difference to me what goes on in your head.

I suppose that could make me look to a Christian like a tempter from
the Devil.  Christians want not only to act decently, but to think
decently.  But for day in, day out living, what matters is not what
you think to yourself, but how you conduct yourself.  And as far as
I've seen, people at CO beaches conduct themselves about as well as
people anywhere.

> According to Genesis, paradise is a place in which we can be naked and
> unashamed -- naked and yet innocently unaware of our nakedness.  I believe
> nudism to be a philosophy which attempts to reclaim that element of
> paradise -- on this Earth and in this lifetime.  Nudism is a state of
> purity of mind, not a state of undress.  As such, I find it entirely
> consistent with the central theme of the Bible, namely redemption and the
> restoration of paradise.

I don't know what to make of that.  It sounds beautiful, and in some
sense it must be partly true.  People are all more or less
absent-minded, and so people can at times forget that they feel cold,
hungry, tired, or randy (even when nude).  They are for a time
"unaware."  But people must feel all of those things much of the time
(even when nude), otherwise we wouldn't do the things that make us and
the species survive.  We are not in Paradise.  Total purity of mind,
all the time, is just not practical.

But I have to agree that there is far more "purity of mind" in being
naked together than in making a fuss about keeping your pants on.

							Marty
marty@hoqaa.att.com		hoqaa!marty
Martin B. Brilliant		(Winnertech Corporation)	
From: ales@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Ales Fiala)
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 15:59:30 GMT
Subject: Re: TV's Hard Copy reports on nudism
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA