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Thursday, August 08, 2013

Are there any natural desires?

Are there any natural desires? The, er, natural response is to say, well, of course there are. Duh! Hunger, thirst, and sex come to mind.

An essay in First Things argues that there are no such things, or, rather, that they are tamed and channeled. For example, as the author says, ". . . The desire to know and see God is a configuration we can nurture or oppose."

The essay does deal with other desires, including hunger, and the very notion that there might not be any natural desires has brought out a number of interesting comments, as would be expected.

Thanks for reading. Read the essay.

2 comments:

atlibertytosay said...

I think Galations 5:17 is pretty clear about this …

For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.

We certainly can be pure in our hunger and thirsts, but we can be sinful as well.

We certainly can be pure in our sexual behavior, but sinful as well.

Martin LaBar said...

Thanks, atlibertytosay.

I guess some would say that there is a natural desire to have a relationship with God, but that that is often perverted.