Pornography, in various mediums, has been around since the first hominid painted naked boobies on the wall of his primitive cave.
Many years later, the ever-popular concept of adult entertainment is almost universally accessible via the Internet.
If you happen to buy into religious criticism, you may recognize the following adage: Every time you look at porn, God kills a kitten.
But if you happen to live in Indonesia, then it goes something like this: Every time you look at porn, a pop star gets thrown in jail.
The first one may carry little authority in the guilt-inflicting game, but the second actually happened.
On Monday, Indonesian pop star Nazril Irham, known by his stage name “Ariel,” was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and fined $25,000 for the production of several sex tapes that went viral on the Internet last year.
At first glance, one might think, “These must have been some seriously smutty sex tapes to land him in jail, perhaps even more lewd than R. Kelly’s.”
But the crime was not the outrageousness of the content in the videos — which were rather tame — but rather that they existed in the first place. You see, pornography is illegal to create, distribute or possess in Indonesia, according to the country’s anti-porn bill of 2008.
The fact the tapes were leaked and not deliberately distributed by the pop star held no sway in the legal decision to lock up Ariel.
What is more shocking, perhaps, is the roughly 500 religious zealots who waited outside the courthouse and were incensed over the “lenient” sentence the pop star received.
So, to give a quick recap: A man was put in jail and fined because homemade sex tapes on his computer were found and published by someone else. This is quite the opposite of the average American sex scandal treatment, which predominantly prescribes promotion and fame.
The difference, frankly, is the dominance of fundamentalist Islamic sway over the political landscape in Indonesia and neighboring regions. It’s a historical fact — if the “moral” majority wants a religious law in place, it shall be made.
So if a group of radical Muslims wants to make it illegal to view copulating couples in a digital format, it’s as easy as making a few threats and screaming “God is great.”
I have little doubt that if fundamentalist Christianity had its way, the U.S. would have a similar set of laws restricting pornography.
Luckily for all of us, this is not the case here.
But to accurately decipher the morality of modern pornography, one must look beyond religious understandings.
Clearly, neither the Bible nor the Quran say a word about it. You will indeed find across-the-board condemnations of physically fornicating with prostitutes and raping farm animals, but these are entirely different scenarios.
This would be the same as equating the act of murder with killing someone in a video game — they’re just not the same.
From the scientific standpoint, porn can actually be good for you.
Milton Diamond, a scientist at the University of Hawaii, recently conducted a study and analyzed large amounts of data on porn use.
His findings rejected the notion that sex offenders were predominantly porn addicts. In actuality, Diamond found a correlation between sex offense and repressive religious upbringing.
More importantly, he discovered that where pornography was readily available, sex crimes usually decreased.
Lastly, Diamond discovered “no correlation between the increased availability of pornography and a deterioration in attitudes toward women.”
Granted, pornography has been shown to be addictive — much like anything else — and should not be abused or over-consumed.
In the end, having the ability to decide for yourself is what matters.
If you think God will like you better if you abstain, more power to you.
As the old saying goes: different strokes for different folks.
Andrew Robertson is a 24-year-old English writing and culture senior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Arobertson.
 
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Contact Andrew Robertson at [email protected]