Whether one is religiously observant or not giving in to ones baser desires or resigning oneself to the supposed overpowering strength of ones baser desires is the surest way to deny ones higher self ..expression.

When we deny our higher self ...expression then there is only one direction left and that is down.

If our bodies were supposed to lead the way then we would do what our bodies our homo sapien 'animal selves demand and that is focus only on the survival instinct and we would not do anything that contradicts that instinct for survival
YET
We see that so many people religious and not.. do so many things that contradict the survival instinct ,for example

Give beyond ones means at times to the impoverished

Risking our lives for friends and family

Allowing people to gain an advantage over us because we feel they need it more than we do

Soldiers and others giving up their lives to save their comrades

Taking the blame for certain things to keep the peace and move on

Forgiving those that have harmed us etc etc

No matter what you think you believe in people are clearly a lot more than their bodies and for that reason alone allowing our higher selves expression should be an imperative to explore at the very least what could be, how high we could reach

Do yourself a favor and start realizing that your baser desires are not the real you they are just a test to see how much you really want to find ,experience and gift the world with the beautiful Divine true eternal real YOU

Fight for yourself G-D thinks you are worth the effort so should you