Family Values: Incest

[MagnetMan]

I am researching Family Values for a documentary film. I will be posting several threads that explore this subject. It would be helpful if you contribute to this research with your views on incest. If you could preface your view with a Y or an N to signify that you have personal experience, that would be even more helpful.

Incest is decreed by State laws as a crime. To most it is seen as a despicable sexual act. There is no census on how many children are the product of incest. But it surely is in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. While the problem lies as skeletons hiding in our cultural closet, all those thousands of young lives are lived in shame and as lies.

The question is: If incest is entirely natural, in fact the way human evolution began, and was once openly practiced by Royalty, and to some extent still, is, and is used by breeders to obtain highly pedigreed offspring - why is incest considered to be a social crime?

Can the children of incestuous family relationships be allowed to come out of the closet and reveal their family secret and lead a decent life without suffering from social stigma? Or shall we keep the closet locked and refuse to assess the damage?

[InfiniteNow]

All life stems from the same source and is all highly related. The fact that there are laws does nothing to strengthen your point. Even animals in the wild tend not to breed with close relatives unless no other options exist for offspring furtherance. While certain mutations are beneficial for a given environment, most just lead to negative genetic outcomes.

You wanna screw your sister? Well, if she wants to do the same to you, then all the power to you both. That's what natural selection is for.

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by MagnetMan

I am researching Family Values for a documentary film. I will be posting several threads that explore this subject.

Could you post a credible link to allow people here to research your documentary history and allow persons to decide whether your objective is objective?

[MagnetMan]

Originally Posted by Cedars

Could you post a credible link to allow people here to research your documentary history and allow persons to decide whether your objective is objective?

You are quite at liberty, as are all others, not to contribute to this thread. Not even God can be purely objective when documenting the vagaries of human behavior.

[InfiniteNow]

Originally Posted by MagnetMan

Not even God can be purely objective when documenting the vagaries of human behavior.

What else can't god do?

[MagnetMan]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

What else can't god do?

He cannot understand why incest has been stgmatized. Who did it? What for? How do we resolve the plight of millions of families who cannot reveal their true identity? Is keeping it in the closet the best policy?

[Racoon]

Magnet Man brings up some good points, both here and in other threads,

But I fail to see how Incest is a 'Family Value'

Value (n.): 1) that for which is something is regarded as useful or desirable.

[MagnetMan]

Originally Posted by Racoon

But I fail to see how Incest is a 'Family Value'

Value (n.): 1) that for which is something is regarded as useful or desirable.

Incest is not unnatural. Therefore outlawing it is the result of an opinion. Who declared it to be socially undesirable? What is the rationale behind that opinion?

Millions of families live a lie because of the stigma attached to incest.
Can these familes never be allowed to live normal lives?

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by Racoon

...But I fail to see how Incest is a 'Family Value' ...

Well, today it is certainly not a mainstream Family Value. But if we look back into the depths of archeo-time... time... time...

Lot's daughters get their "just and righteous" father drunk, and have sexual intercourse with him, and each conceives and bears a son. Gen 19:30-38
No moral injunction or criticism is levied.

However, by the time of the writing of Numbers 27, screwing around with your sisters or your mother is a serious offense--but I could not find any indication that making happy with your daughters or sons was in the same category.

See the Skeptics Annotated Bible:
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/sex/long.htm

[Pyrotex]

Originally Posted by MagnetMan

Incest is not unnatural. ...the stigma attached to incest. Can these familes never be allowed to live normal lives?

Dear Magneto Dude,
I just cannot see any connection between statements like this and your original goal, which was to make a documentary. If there were, then your questions would be FAR more specific and to the point. But they aren't. Your questions and comments are very vague and general and all-inclusive.
The big problem is, there exists a sexual subculture that considers incest to be extremely erotic. Can you say anything that would assure us that your intentions here are noble?