As a kid, I always knew where I could go to see naked people - well, for me, it was specifically naked women I wanted to see. It didn't involve the illicit purchase of an "adult" magazine or the carefully-guarded and secretive viewing of an "adult" movie. Sure, as a kid I was able use those avenues as well. But, by far the easiest avenue to viewing nakedness was to open up a National Geographic magazine. For some reason, human nudity in this magazine was uncensored and freely available to me as well as others. I didn't think about the "why" question at the time, but came to think about it later...after my youthful nudity-seeking came to an end and I became more interested in what I now see as bigger and more important issues.
As most of its readers know, National Geographic is a magazine which operates under an evolutionary worldview and actively promotes it. Its promotion of Darwinian evolution is in fact rather blatant, as if the magazine editor and staff are saying "Come on, you ignorant flat-earther creationists! Neo-Darwinian evolution is a fact! How many times do we need to tell you! The universe and all it contains came about by chance, and all your thinking and actions are controlled by genes - and then ultimately by the laws of physics and biology - which came about by chance! Believe and be saved!" Of course this message is politely submerged beneath much refined verbiage and glossy photography. The message gets through though.
This magazine, only one of many, but perhaps the most readily recognizable and respected, is at odds with itself. That is, through its actual actions it argues against those things it supposedly promotes. We see articles about the human spirit. We see articles that clearly attempt to show the moral wrong or moral rightness about practices and occurrences in various places throughout the globe. It is a magazine that seems to promote human dignity and discourage sexism, oppression, and racism. However (and this is where the nudity part comes in), why all the naked people? Why can I readily find both rear and frontal human nudity of both sexes in many of its issues? I believe it is because under the surface, the evolutionary worldview trains the mind to see the uncivilized peoples of the world to be somehow less-than-fully-human. If not that, then at least less human or less evolved than them - or you and me.
Self-deception is indeed possible and I am convinced happens every day in the minds of many - and perhaps all of us to some extent. I believe that National Geographic-type nakedness is published without significant objection because, under their self-deception of their own belief of human equality, they actually believe that some humans are more human than others. To put it simply, they believe the naked people pictured in their magazines are closer to animals than you or I and thus don't require the same censorship or protection in regards to their naked parts. One could object to my thesis and say that National Geographic-type nakedness is OK because the naked people themselves don't care about their breasts, buttocks, or reproductive parts showing. To that objection I would answer that I'm sure that many people from developed countries who read, write, and can use a computer would not object to their naked bodies being shown publicly either. However, we find that these people are not able to get their nakedness out into the open (legally) very easily. Would anyone argue with this? If so, try and get naked pictures of yourself published in a magazine which can find itself in a dentist's office or school bookshelf.
As a Christian who rejects Neo-Darwinian evolutionary presuppositions in regards to our species, I instead heartily affirm the Biblical scripture which instead gives bona fide human credentials to all races and peoples because we call came from "...one blood..."(Acts 17:26) People may be inconsistent in their application of this truth, but at least the foundation itself is consistent with equal treatment of nudity - because we're all equally human.
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