Religion and Pick Up?

[salil]

I just started college and there are several religious groups on campus recruiting people. I was raised Hindu but one of the Christian ones caught my eye and I've been studying the Bible over the last few weeks.

Certain verses conflict with the idea of Pick Up, going out and seducing girls for example. At first i figured that did not matter, since my intention was just to improve my life and make myself better with people overall. Plus, there's that adage "Leave her better than you found her" which I definitely believe. But then, there are parts of the Bible that tell you not to lust at all. This not only seemed to oppose PU, but also what many many people do, like watching porn or simply just finding another person attractive and wanting them.

I'm not planning to stop working on myself in this area, but it got me thinking. I'd love to hear any thoughts or insights from others on how they believe lusting or learning PU may or may not conflict with various religions, Christian or others.

[Rob K]

I was raised in the church and was so indoctrinated that it took me years to break the bad habits that taught me that women are to be treated with gloves and always at arms length. I am no longer a practicing christian but I have taken a lot from the bible that has made me into the well rounded person that I have become. I was frankly very tired of the hypocritical approach that I saw in far too many of the believers and their attitude to people. I have had many sorted adventures in my past and many of them included drug dealers, pimps, hookers, bad people with guns and the wrong side of the track. Many of those people have been an inspiration to me, and have helped me when I was down when no one else would.

For the most part I do not believe that religion and pick up are a good match. But religion as a whole has put so much effort into teaching us that our bodies natural urges are wrong and we should feel shame for wanting to feel whole and satisfied with a biological and evolutional partner that is there for us and us for them.

My advice is to not throw the concept of religion out the window, but to take from it the parts that will make you a better man on whole and to take the rest with a grain of salt.

[hdiwan650]

I just started college and there are several religious groups on campus recruiting people. I was raised Hindu but one of the Christian ones caught my eye and I've been studying the Bible over the last few weeks.

Salil,
Having been to both college and graduate school (and I don't think grade schools in America are any different, but haven't had experience in this regard), there is ALWAYS a minority of people who believe in being militant about their religion. This holds for all religions (eg the Hindus have the RSS, the Jews have the Irgun, Islam has the Tabligh, and atheism -- my chosen "faith" -- has Richard Dawkins). My feeling about religion is that EVERYONE picks and chooses which parts of it to believe and which parts to ignore.

For example, some individuals think the world is 6,000-odd years old because there's a date given in the Bible for the creation[1]. However, there are fossils that are several orders of magnitude older than that (not to mention fossil fuels, which are even older). Most Christians I've come across ignore this portion of the Bible. But there are a handful of very visible Christians who seem to take this viewpoint.
--
1. I have never read the Bible nor any other religious text, this is just what I've read in other sources

[Nova]

If you pursue a girl because you are genuinley interested in her, and you care for her, than you are in the context for which love and sex was created.

No I suppose by any religon a PUA lifseyle isnt moral, then dont be a PUA. But you can still date, court, kiss, and be passionate with women you truly like/love/want (thats not lust, thats passion big difference). Pattern your life to fit your beliefs. I have been here for years and though I am a very spiritual (not religous) person with deep rooted morals I too wanna have a dating life. But you wont catch me jumping from girl to girl so I can fill a spreadsheet (nor is that what AOC teaches) I learned what I learned so I can find the best girl out there and then love her like shes the sun the moon and stars.

[ChrisB]

I went to a private religious school for many years but when I questioned religion I was always told "Just have faith" and for some reason that was never good enough for me... I always wanted to know "why?" I envy people, to some extent, who "just have faith" because the faith in the higher power seems to satisfy them, and that satisfied feeling in knowing something better is waiting is something I wish for myself, but to me "Why?" hold so much more power. If it weren't for "Why?" technological advances would almost certainly not exist. As for social interactions and psychology we seem to just be scraping the surface of "Why?" because before people were afraid to ask. If you don't fear the knowledge of what "why?" brings, and you do your absolute best to be a good person in your own mind, then feel free to do as you wish and not let others define your actions as "wrong" or "right"...keeping in mind the law of course