Learning to Understand More About the Purpose of Sex in Human Life and Marriage

Do you understand the purpose of sex in human life? Sex as we now know it has resulted from an evolutionary process covering perhaps millions of years. Nature did not develop this just so that we who live today could have fun. The basic purpose was to maintain the human race.

Babies can be, and frequently are, born outside of marriage. But they are not so born in sufficient numbers to maintain the race. A thousand housewives will have far more children than a thousand prostitutes. As to the fruitfulness of sex relationships within and outside of marriage, there is no comparison. Most married couples both want and have children. Outside of marriage every effort is made to keep the relationships completely unproductive. Ask young people this question, "If you marry, do you hope to have children?" With few exceptions, the answer is "Yes." Now ask, "If you were to have sex relationships outside marriage, would you hope to have children?" The almost universal answer is an emphatic "No." Ask yourselves these same questions. For reasons which are easy to understand, in sex relationships outside of marriage, children are the exception. Within marriage, children are the rule. Sound sex standards are not the inventions of narrow-minded moralists. They arise out of the requirements of nature, and especially, of human nature of which you are part.

From the standpoint of race survival it is important, not only that babies should be born, but that they should be cared for properly after their arrival. Of all animals, the human infant is the most helpless, not only at birth, but for the longest time thereafter. While the children are small, both they and the mother need the help and care of the father. In sex relationships outside marriage, the father is less likely to accept such responsibility. Unmarried fathers often become panicky and try to get out from under. A sex code which limits relationships to marriage best provides that security for mother and child which is essential to the perpetuation of the human race.

Sex, then, has essential purposes rooted in human survival. The young couple of today will succeed in their marriage only if they have a sound sex code based upon a clear understanding of the purpose of sex in the long process of human evolution. For the human race and its survival includes you and your children.

Growing evidence seems to show that the family is not less, but more important for civilization than we used to think that it was. The strength and soundness of any people depend largely upon what we may call "spiritual vitamins." Good family life is not the only source of these, but it is the main source. Therefore the future of any society or nation depends largely upon the healthiness of its family life.

Within marriage, sex strengthens and enriches the family. Sex relationships outside marriage weaken and harm sound family living. One incident of adultery will not necessarily prove fatal; any more than one incident of pneumonia will necessarily kill an individual. But in either case, the condition is weakening and dangerous, and should be avoided or corrected. Love for those outside the family circle there must and should be. But the limitation of sexual expressions of love to husband and wife is essential for the building of that depth of relationship upon which sound family life so largely depends. The demand for sexual fidelity is no outgrown taboo. It is a safeguard necessary to protect the family which is the unit of society upon which civilization itself so largely rests.