The Devil’s Meditations On Positive Sexuality

As the Devil, the thought of positive sexuality is a relevant one to the pursuit of happiness.

In a soft effort to return to my original condition, which is that of a proponent of individual happiness and social health, I have thought about the notions of pleasure, desire, and lust today. 

And as expected, I have questions about them.

Okay, let me be honest; I always think about those three because they are vital to my stability, but today more so than usual. 

The reason this happened

This meditation on these principles results from two different yet related experiences. 

First, my focus on what I like to call My Happiness Project, or aptly, The Devil’s Happiness Project, in which I attempt to quantify my readers’ happiness levels. 

Not an easy task, but one I’ve planned for a while now. More on this later. 

Second, a conversation with a religious conservative friend who argues for controlling people’s expression of sexuality as a moral imperative. 

Expectedly, his reply to my question of why this should be the case was a biblical reference. “Homosexuality is wrong,” he submitted, “because the bible says it is.” Ironically, he offered these religious condemnations of human behaviour while devouring a juicy bacon cheeseburger. Eating bacon, I pointed out, is also against biblical law. His defence for his commitment to pork was a mindless indulgence of apologetics and logical fallacy, but unfortunately, it was nonsense he truly believes. 

And while I’m not one to humour such conversations unless it’s for their entertainment value, he is my friend, and he represents a more significant portion of the human population than most secular people care to admit. 

My questions about POSITIVE sexuality

Let’s start by asking why lust is bad. What makes this notion undesirable according to most religious and some political frameworks? 

Could it be the word’s definition? 

The dictionary defines lust primarily as strong sexual desire. And this definition seems to be the first implication the word has for most people. 

Can humans not lust for power? 

Is it possible for people to lust for wealth? 

Yes, both of these possibilities are true. Importantly, they are more potent motivators than sexual desire. Due to unfortunate social conditioning, people understand that achieving power and wealth makes sex more accessible. 

Humans committed some of the worst crimes in history in their pursuit of power, after all. I’m sure you can think of several examples. 

Is it the methods people can employ to quench their lust that religion is concerned with? Perhaps this question gives them moral credit they don’t deserve.

Would it not be better to help people understand the consequences of their actions instead of shaming them for their nature as sexual beings?  

And I do not intend to rely on the naturalistic fallacy here to prove a point. I understand that not all things natural are good and that we need to correct for nature’s errors, and a push towards positive sexuality is how we do that in this case. 

A simple conclusion

As you can see, I only offer questions here, and I’ll pose several more to conclude. 

Can you imagine a world where people pursue power and wealth within the limitations of compassion and universal responsibility? 

Can such a world be possible given human nature? 

Are there any acts that are bad if observed from the perspectives of mutual respect and consent? 

Is it the word that is bad or how people go about fulfilling their desires that needs attention? 

Would people be happier if they knew how to follow their desires optimally? 

I’ll keep thinking.

–The Devil Unbound