The history of moral and scientific beliefs about masturbation can be quite amusing, considering how wildly sincere some have been about their irrational anti-masturbation attitudes. My amusement comes about because historical anti-masturbation beliefs have absolutely no basis in Scripture, science, or reason. Yet that did not stop people like Ellen and James White, cofounders of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, from writing on the alleged causal connection between masturbation, which they thought of as "self-abuse," and insanity, memory loss, deformed limbs, skin issues, and a whole host of other maladies--even including premature death! In her 1870 book A Solemn Appeal (the full title is much longer) Ellen explained how she believed that masturbation could especially wreak havoc on the bodies and minds of women--because, according to her, they have less "vital force."
Other historical figures, like Dr. John Kellogg, who patented Kellogg's Corn Flakes, also strongly opposed masturbation, with the Corn Flakes actually being intended to discourage masturbation! Kellogg, like the Whites, was a Seventh Day Adventist. The unscientific and irrational positions on masturbation held by the Whites certainly does not help make Seventh Day Adventism seem true. In fact, the very claim that masturbation is inherently sinful contradicts Biblical ethics (Deuteronomy 4:2, 1 John 3:4), making at least this component of Ellen White's worldview incorrect, since it contradicts the thing it is allegedly in agreement with (meaning it is false whether or not the Bible is true). And the claims about the physical and mental health issues caused by masturbation are certainly laughable at best.
There is no correlation between masturbation and mental illness, physical deformity, or death. Even if there was, correlation does not necessarily mean causation is present. Of course, exact connections of particular causes to particular effects can never be proven in full (except for the uncaused cause creating the material world [1]), but there is a great deal of scientific data that contradicts the claims of the Whites about masturbation (aka no correlation exists), logic proves that it does not follow by necessity from masturbating that physical or mental impairments or death will result, and the Bible does not condemn masturbation itself in any way.
Since the only difference between masturbation and intercourse with a partner is that the former involves only one person, it is truly asinine for anyone to suggest that one would lead to dire health consequences and not the other. Without ever having performed any scientific experiments investigating the subject, people who rightly comprehend logic would have grounds for strongly doubting the veracity of such causal connections on this basis alone. People that arbitrarily condemn what God has not rely on a charade of false assumptions that they are intent upon honoring at the expense of rationality. The Bible is clear that neither male nor female masturbation is sinful [2], and logic reveals that it can even be beneficial in some ways [3].
Masturbation, apart from addiction, is not self-abuse because it itself does not lead to negative results. In itself it doesn't harm the body or the mind, and it certainly is not a sinful activity (again, see Deuteronomy 4:2 and 1 John 3:4)! What is harmful is the asinine legalism that condemns it and the false guilt Christians might have over something innocent. The true lunacy is not that some people masturbate, as there is nothing that is sinful about simple masturbation; the lunacy is that alleged Christians like White would believe in something so deeply unbiblical, irrational, and unscientific.
[1]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-uncaused-cause.html
[2]. See here:
A. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/07/sexual-self-stimulation.html
B. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/myths-about-masturbation.html
C. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/11/more-myths-about-masturbation.html
[3]. https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/11/masturbation-and-self-knowledge.html
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