Why is masturbation considered to be a "grave sin"?

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Perhaps members more knowledgeable about this than I am can clear some things up for me about masturbation and certain Christian faiths such as Catholicism believing masturbation to be a "grave sin".

"Onanism" is defined as 1) masturbation. 2) coitus interruptus or vice versa depending on the dictionary used.

Onan was a man in the Old Testament who performed coitus interruptus, "spilling his seed" on the ground or "pulling out" presumably to avoid impregnating his wife. Given that Christian faiths such as Catholicism believe that sex should not prevent the possibility of conception, it makes sense that within that construct, coitus interruptus is considered sinful.

I don't get why masturbation is considered sinful, however. Onan was not masturbating, he was having sexual intercourse. It seems a stretch to me that masturbation is equated with Onanism.

A man who masturbates isn't preventing a procreative act. Neither is a woman who masturbates. Moreover, a woman doesn't "spill her seed".

There are many ways that a person seeks pleasure and which are not considered sinful by the same Christian faiths: taking a hot bath, watching a movie, eating ice cream, getting a massage, reading a good book, and on and on and on. Why is masturbation, a solitary pleasurable act and therefore not an act that prevents procreation considered to be a sin?

It depends who you ask and which sources you refer to.

The onanism thing is taken out of context.

I suspect their reasoning would go something along the lines of:

"To have sex with another, with the intent of reproduction, serves a practical purpose which justifies the act in the eyes of god. Even the act of sex with another, without the intent of reproduction, while married, is still an act of love towards another within a holy union - so long as the possibility of pregnancy is not interfered with, such as the spilling of his seed, or any other form of contraception. To engage in masturbation serves no practical end other than self-pleasure, and as such would then be construed as an act of lust, which is one of the deadly sins."

That's my best guess based on what I know of christian scripture and belief. I suspect it also has to do with the idea that spilling one's seed is to waste god's gift of life for an act of lust. In their eyes, masturbation does prevent procreation, because every orgasm could have been a pregnancy if you'd had sex instead of masturbating. Also the lust thing. Sexual acts tend to get singled out as a sin like that. Of course, religious doctrine doesn't want you to question it - it just wants you to obey - so it doesn't have to make sense - you're just supposed to obey it anyways.

There’s the idea of “lust.” The Bible does discourage fantasizing about people. (Read Matthew 5:28, 29)

Also, Romans 1:26, 27 gets pushed to an extreme (as I mention in another thread) as far as only sex between a man and woman being okay. Some think this would preclude self love.

Masturbation is usually considered more of a “minor sin” by the very religious which can be absolved through prayer and avoiding repeat offenses.

No, that's known as coitus interruptus and isn't the same thing. It was considered a sin in Onan's case because of the circumstances (which I forget for now - bit rusty) but masturbation is quite different. Besides, a lot of the OT stuff is no longer taken as wrong e.g. most of the laws and regulations about clothing, eating pork etc.

It really sucks that I used to get boners watching cartoons like The Little Mermaid and Sailor Moon, before I even knew what sex was, and then later on being told that looking at women lustfully is a sin, after fantasizing about cartoon characters millions of times by then.

Me too, yo!

Regarding Onan, his crime can be considered masturbation in the sense that he used his wife for a "Fleshlight" and that's just dehumanizing. Then he jizzes all over the floor. If there were people whom it would be nice to nuke from heaven, this guy qualifies. "Oh, people do a lot worse!" Yes, and we don't know what else Onan did.

Regarding who wants to have ten kids? Well, I've seen people quite happy to have three or four, and then other people who have ten (that particular family, I think, is fixing to have No. 11 in a few days) and some people are just fond of children. I think a lot of people are not able to handle the lifestyle. Other people are happy in the smugness of luxurious first-world living. Just because I don't want to own a smart phone doesn't mean they aren't awesome. And just because some folks don't want ten kids doesn't mean ten kids is a bad family size.

People marrying at 12-14: yeah, it's kind of gross, actually. Just because it's in the Bible doesn't mean it's a good thing. For example, there's a lot of slavery, rapes, murders, suicides, arson, vandalism, disembowelments--even a very long narrative of the torture and death of the Son of God. Pretty weird stuff. People tend to justify their own weird stuff because it's in the Bible, but that doesn't mean it's not weird stuff.

I kind of think all history books reflect the thoughts of the time they cover. It's nice--they don't ask you to believe in it, just say "this is how it was."

There are a lot of questions in here and I had a rough day so I don't have the energy to answer all of them, but honestly guys and gals, there are about zero things in here from anyone who's seen anything other than Protestantism. Which (I think) is a ghastly parody of Christianity in most cases, though I am biased from growing up in the American South among the Evangelicals. I like their moxie but they're kind of short on sense when it comes to the brain side of it.