Reply With QuoteI agree that celibacy is not necessarily the primary casue of child abuse in the RC church but the suppression of natural instincts is bound to have a knock on effect and I am sure that it plays a part.
It would be reasonable to surmise, would it not, that people with the desire to sexually abuse children are likely to seek out places of work where they are placed in a position of trust with children?
And, as I was told about confession, you have to mean it! Perhaps they're not telling the truth when they dedicate their life to God?
"No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority." Robert Heinlein
I agree that celibacy is not necessarily the primary casue of child abuse in the RC church but the suppression of natural instincts is bound to have a knock on effect and I am sure that it plays a part.
You cannae kid a kidder kiddo!
Have you seen the slums around vatican city, who do you think owns them ?Originally Posted by newatheist
They don't want anyone to know they're breaking the celibacy? Well it's been proven 'apparently' that there is a difference in paedophiles' brains that attracts the to children, very unreliable evidence if any, can anyone enlighten me on that? If it's not that then what else but the effects of celibacy? EDIT: or both of those factors.
Two thousand years and counting!
They could take their collar off and go see a prostitute or form a long term, trusting relationship with a parishioner. There are options other than children.
When sailors hit shore after a long period at sea they don't head for schools. I really don't think celibacy causes paedophilia.Well it's been proven 'apparently' that there is a difference in paedophiles' brains that attracts the to children, very unreliable evidence if any, can anyone enlighten me on that? If it's not that then what else but the effects of celibacy? EDIT: or both of those factors.
Worst signature ever.
Mm but what about in small villages where everyone knows everyone and if the priest started banging someone then their reputation is ruined. With children it's more discreet, gain the kid's trust and they're his pawn. Maybe they find the power turns them on too.
you speak the truth, children are easily minupilated and are always nearby so the priest can be in full control and minimum risk.
i think there an american cult where the head of the cult persuaded youg girls to have sex with him by saying they were having sex with god through him... more or less.
"When a man mounts another man, the throne of God shakes." - beardy weirdo from the desert
Psychiatrists and psychologists have been trying to link brain size and abnormal brain structure or function with every socially undesirable trait for a long time.
Now that the brain is a little better understood, and investigation techniques a little less invasive associations are being reported between areas concerning emotional arousal and specific visual stimuli in homosexuals, heterosexuals and paedophiles. What I think this fails to address is how these associations came to be - nature versus nurture is not addressed by such observations.
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2008 Aug;258(5):271-7. Epub 2008 May 26.
Abnormal amygdala activation profile in pedophilia.
Sartorius A, Ruf M, Kief C, Demirakca T, Bailer J, Ende G, Henn FA, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Dressing H.
Central Institute of Mental Health, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany.
Despite considerable public interest research in neurobiological correlates of pedophilia is scarce. Since amygdala activation is central for emotional valuation, arousal, and salience, we investigated the activation profile of this structure in 10 male subjects with pedophilia (exclusively attracted to boys), all convicted sex-offenders and sentenced to forensic psychiatric treatment along with ten male heterosexual matched controls. We used a sexually non-explicit functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) paradigm with images of men, women, boys or girls randomly embedded in neutral target/non-target geometrical symbols. We applied statistical parametric mapping (SPM2) and SPSS 14 for image processing and analysis. While controls activated significantly less to pictures of children compared to adults, the activation profile was reversed in subjects with pedophilia, who exhibited significantly more activation to children than adults. The highest activation was observed for boys in the patient group, and for women in control participants. Our data show enhanced activation to children's pictures even in an incidental context and suggest the provocative hypothesis that a normally present mechanism for reduced emotional arousal for children relative to adults is reversed in pedophilia, suggesting a neural substrate associated with deviant sexual preference in this condition. More extensive research in this field would be of benefit for both the victims and the offenders.
Note in this study despite using MRI no structural abnormality is mentioned. Other studies suggest that there are structural differences between the brains of paedophiles and 'normal' people - to date there appears to be no consistency in such observations. Presumably if a consistent structural abnormality could be shown, this would point to an event that occurred before two years of age, so probably an inherent abnormality - I suspect this will never be found.
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007 Jun;64(6):737-46.
Brain pathology in pedophilic offenders: evidence of volume reduction in the right amygdala and related diencephalic structures.
Schiltz K, Witzel J, Northoff G, Zierhut K, Gubka U, Fellmann H, Kaufmann J, Tempelmann C, Wiebking C, Bogerts B.
Department of Psychiatry, Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt 39120, Germany. kolja.schiltz@med.ovgu.de
CONTEXT: Pedophilic crime causes considerable public concern, but no causative factor of pedophilia has yet been pinpointed. In the past, etiological theories postulated a major impact of the environment, but recent studies increasingly emphasize the role of neurobiological factors, as well. However, the role of alterations in brain structures that are crucial in the development of sexual behavior has not yet been systematically studied in pedophilic subjects. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether pedophilic perpetrators show structural neuronal deficits in brain regions that are critical for sexual behavior and how these deficits relate to criminological characteristics. DESIGN: Amygdalar volume and gray matter of related structures that are critical for sexual development were compared in 15 nonviolent male pedophilic perpetrators (forensic inpatients) and 15 controls using complementary morphometric analyses (voxel-based morphometry and volumetry). Psychosocial adjustment and sexual offenses were also assessed. RESULTS: Pedophilic perpetrators showed a significant decrease of right amygdalar volume, compared with healthy controls (P = .001). We observed reduced gray matter in the right amygdala, hypothalamus (bilaterally), septal regions, substantia innominata, and bed nucleus of the striae terminalis. In 8 of the 15 perpetrators, enlargement of the anterior temporal horn of the right lateral ventricle that adjoins the amygdala could be recognized by routine qualitative clinical assessment. Smaller right amygdalar volumes were correlated with the propensity to commit uniform pedophilic sexual offenses exclusively (P = .006) but not with age (P = .89). CONCLUSIONS: Pedophilic perpetrators show structural impairments of brain regions critical for sexual development. These impairments are not related to age, and their extent predicts how focused the scope of sexual offenses is on uniform pedophilic activity. Subtle defects of the right amygdala and closely related structures might be implicated in the pathogenesis of pedophilia and might possibly reflect developmental disturbances or environmental insults at critical periods.
J Psychiatr Res. 2008 Feb;42(3):167-83. Epub 2007 Nov 26.
Cerebral white matter deficiencies in pedophilic men.
Cantor JM, Kabani N, Christensen BK, Zipursky RB, Barbaree HE, Dickey R, Klassen PE, Mikulis DJ, Kuban ME, Blak T, Richards BA, Hanratty MK, Blanchard R.
Law and Mental Health Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 250 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 1R8. james_cantor@camh.net
The present investigation sought to identify which brain regions distinguish pedophilic from nonpedophilic men, using unbiased, automated analyses of the whole brain. T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRIs) were acquired from men who demonstrated illegal or clinically significant sexual behaviors or interests (n = 65) and from men who had histories of nonsexual offenses but no sexual offenses (n = 62). Sexual interest in children was assessed by participants' admissions of pedophilic interest, histories of committing sexual offenses against children, and psychophysiological responses in the laboratory to erotic stimuli depicting children or adults. Automated parcellation of the MRIs revealed significant negative associations between pedophilia and white matter volumes of the temporal and parietal lobes bilaterally. Voxel-based morphometry corroborated the associations and indicated that the regions of lower white matter volumes followed, and were limited to, two major fiber bundles: the superior fronto-occipital fasciculus and the right arcuate fasciculus. No significant differences were found in grey matter or in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Because the superior fronto-occipital and arcuate fasciculi connect the cortical regions that respond to sexual cues, these results suggest (1) that those cortical regions operate as a network for recognizing sexually relevant stimuli and (2) that pedophilia results from a partial disconnection within that network.
Last edited by Pebble; 10th January 2009 at 08:16 AM.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. Voltaire
I don't think God does either! Paedophies are in all walks of life and hold, I suspect, a range of beliefs and views. Celibacy does not cause deviant sexuality as far as I know. I expect if we were to look at the proportion of paedo's in the church to the rest of the community there wouldn't be much difference in the figures...and if there were there's probably a case for thinking that some paedo's may become priests to try to overcome their problem rather than actually becoming a priest just to set out to abuse. Either way I don't think God can fairly be blamed for the sick choices some men make.
Do you think I blame god? When did I do that?
Worst signature ever.
Apologies...your raised eyebrows over God's power to change people didn't amount to blaming him for what they do
Apologies...your raised eyebrows over God's power to change people didn't amount to blaming him for what they do
Given the part of the sentence highlighted by Zero (re peadophiles becoming priests to access children), I suspect he was making a wry observation on the INABILITY of god to change people.
Not unusual around here, mainly atheists.
The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. Voltaire
If God was unable to change people he wouldn't be much of a god would he?
Well, yes, that and his apparent inability, despite omnipotence, to provide a single piece of unambiguous evidence for his existence.
Be skeptical of the things you believe are false, but be very skeptical of the things you believe are true.
I am amazed at the strength of many people's faith in their unshakable belief that He doesn't exist despite the whole of creation clearly displaying his existence.
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