What makes humans special is not their bodies. Human anatomy is not very different from other mammals.Brent Stubbs disagreed with that statement. It surprised me. I thought it was obvious that humans are special because they are bodes and spirit together. But I guess the hman body is special in some ways. The first way I thought is the brain. We have better brains than most animals. There is something to be learned from that. We are to be thinkers. God did not give us such good minds so He can do our thinking for us.
There is more. We have actually been given a greater sex drive than most animals. By some measures we are the most sexual animal on the planet. I think about dogs. Female dogs come into season every 6 or 8 months. The rest of the time they are not interested in sex. Males dogs are also not interested when the female is not in heat. Humans are interested all the time. Men don't even care if a young woman is ovulating.
So why is that. It is easy to see why God gives us big brains. But why does God give us big sex drives? One reason might be that the wonders of science and philosophy and human imagination can be so compelling that we might lose interest in procreating if our sex drive was not strong. In fact that is what is happening. The break between sex and procreation has caused us to become unbalanced. We focus to much on our reason and not enough on the self sacrificial love that family life demands. We are becoming less human.
One of the other biological realities is that our children are helpless. That makes us humble knowing that we were once babies. It also makes procreation take decades. I know it is not a purely biological thing but we are wired to want to stay together as couples and we are wired to want to nurture and teach our children. Some animals have that but it is more extreme in humans.
Again it is easy to see where God is going. He loves family. He introduces Himself as Father. He allows most of to start life off in a community of unconditional love.
So I guess there is a lot about our bodies that tells us who God wants us to be. I did not really mean to deny that. But it is interesting to think about. Our bodies are designed to remind us that there is more to life.
Well, men are more attracted to women who are ovulating, but not exclusively so, which explains why women who take the Pill still manage to get dates. (The Pill interferes with the release of chemicals signalling ovulation to men; I hate it when I have to explain jokes.)
ReplyDeleteOther than that little quibble — and it really wasn't important — great post, Randy!
I know there are some subtle but important factors that increase attraction during the fertile period. So maybe the point is overstated. But I think it is still valid. We are not looking for sex every 6 or 8 months. The reason we don't is because God designed our bodies to want it more often.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, definitely the point is valid, especially since individual women's peak fertilities don't all occur at the same time every month. Beyond the wanting, as well, we're free to not have sex when we want it, a freedom denied to other animals. It goes back to what you said: "We are to be thinkers." To say a man who has sex whenever convenient is a "dog" is as much as to say he isn't acting out his full humanity; the more of a dog he is, the less he is of a man. (And the thought can be taken to be gender-inclusive ....)
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