Re: Sex outside of marriage

Quasin wrote:
But I agree sex is not intended to be for short term recreation.

In terms of evolution, I would think it is clear that the purpose of sex is primarily for the perpetuation of our genetic heritage. But as part of that purpose:
- sex is generally held to be highly pleasurable: a means, no doubt, of ensuring that we do it!
- many sex acts do not, and in some cases cannot, lead to procreation, but we still engage in them for the pleasure they bring;
- sex also helps towards bonding people together; either because it is particularly pleasurable with a certain person or persons, or because forming such ties means that there is usually a suitable mate on hand when required. Such longer term bonding will often improve the chances of survival of offspring and can lead to the greater comfort of those so bonded.
- However, where the survival of offspring is not, or is no longer, an issue, the need for such bonding may be significantly reduced. Yet the urge to sex remains.
- Bonding may indeed be an aid to evolutionary survival. But it can also become a social evil, if it leads to exclusive claims either to another person or to the property that a partnership has accumulated and such claims are taken to the point where they become a focus for conflict. (The conflict may itself, of course, be an evolutionary tool.)

Thus, evolutionarily speaking, although sex may not be intended *primarily* for short term recreation, it might serve such a purpose even so; in that it may fulfil a drive which remains strong even though procreation is not a desired or necessary outcome.

Of course, I haven't mentioned God or belief in all this. As a Christian believer I am not implying that the divine dimension is unimportant. But in seeking to understand where the will of God is in all this, I suggest we need to recognise also the evolutionary realities. Otherwise we may find ourselves reading something into God's mind that is not in fact there, given that we also view God as Creator and therefore initiator of evolution. The lack of knowledge of evolution may well, in previous centuries, have led to a misshaping of religious doctrine in this area; such that a new think is essential, and we may be making serious mistakes in simply standing on traditional interpretations. I suggest that the Church's lack of willingness to respond positively to new knowledge is one of the reasons why many seem to find the Church irrelevant.
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Revd. Eric Potts
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