[samsara15]

Regardless of whether one is Christian or not, we all are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve. Some say Eve's error was to choose the world of the senses over the abstract beauty of the worldly pleasures. Eve is usually cast as shallow and overly-devoted to the animal pleasures of the body. Asceticsm is usually cast, in most religions, as greatly morally superior to sensualism. Is this really true? Doesn't the promotion of asceticism lead to rejection of this world, lower status of women, and absolutist religions that ceaselessly war with each other, like Islam and Christianity, causing much bloodshed?

Shouldn't we value the joys of the senses, since they are quite likely the only joys we will ever know, if there is no God and no afterlife?