Hazel-rah

I think the question in the OP has a much more pedestrian answer than health benefits or evern religiosity: It's about power and preserving the hierarchy. Everything to do with restrictions on heterosexual sex has to do with ensuring that children are legitimate--it's why the emphasis on virginity at marriage and all other rules designed to keep women from venturing outside the man's walls and control. It's why polygamy was okay, but all the wives had to be virgins and then were considered the man's property.

I think that thinking applies, in modified form, to the prohibitions against "perversions" as well. If people are having too much fun, it threatens the order and structure of society. And who in society benefits most from rules and order and--probably more importantly--fear of breaking those rules?

Priests, i.e., the guys who write sacred scripture. Ain't that funny?

Chaupoline

I don't think that it is about preventing people from having too much fun. I think that a hedonistic attitude can be destructive over time. It is fine to enjoy yourself but in order for society to work properly you need people to be responsible. Everyone in society benefits from rules and order. People need boundries. I need to be know that I can trust that other people are not going to screw me over the first chance they get. That is actually the biggest problem in America. Americans in big cities don't trust other Americans.

Regarding the the bit with virgins and the need for marrying virgins. All relationships should be based on trust. In the last thirty years, the divorce rate in America has increased exponentially. Adultery destroys trust between spouses. There are some people who really have a problem with the number of people the other person in the relationship has been in. The one who catches feelings isn't just the woman either. People want to believe that they are the favorite for the their romantic partner. With hedonism, everything is just about you, so how can trust ever really come into play. I know there are couples who embrace the swingers lifestyle and will state that they are completely happy with it, and they may not be putting on a show. But anytime there is anything remotely chaotic in your life, things just seem to turn to crap around you. Anything taken to extremes eventually turns toxic.

jbernier

[QUOTE=hinduwoman]A great deal of God's laws seem to be obsessed with how to have sex, with whom to have sex. Disobey that and the punishment specially for women is terrible. But Why would God care what we get upto in the privacy of our bedrooms?

Uhmmm...little point of detail. The virgin birth suggests that there was nothing sexual associated with the conception of Jesus. Thus God did not "knock up" Mary. This argument really fails at a couple fundamental points.

Other point: The "Father-Son" imagery of the New Testament is not a reference to the Father's physical patrimony of Jesus; rather, it is a way of conceptualizing Jesus' divine identity.

I think that the best approach to think about this are the issues of desire and violence. If it were just about sex I do not think there would be a problem. However, let us look at the 10th commandment, "Thou shalt not covet your neighbour's wife." Let us think about this for a moment. The sin here is "coveting," desiring for oneself. Now, one could read this as a discussion of property rights: That is your neighbour's property and therefore you should not want it. However, that really only explain "Thou shalt not steal." This prohibition is not about the act of taking the neighbour's wife itself but about the desire to have her.

Now, what happens if the desire turns to action? Perhaps one seduces the neighbour's wife (or, in the good ol' days of the ancient Near East simply kidnap her or what have you). What does this lead to? Most likely to (more) violence. More, in a small-scale society with no centralized authority who can intervene to stop the violence? Things escalate and can very quickly get out of hand.

This, I think, is the issue underlying the sexual laws. There is a recognition of the potentially destructive power of sexual desire when it is realized in action. Thus rules exist around sexuality. Of course, we still have them today: For instance, for say that sex between mutually consenting adults is a-okay but that sex between individuals when one does or cannot consent (i.e. rape or pedophilia) is a crime. Of course, we also say that certain sexual relations are not okay, even when the adults are consenting; for instance, the law will not allow a man and woman to marry if they are siblings, no matter whether they consent or not. We recognize that certain sexual practices are harmful and destructive so we outlaw them. Putting on my anthropologist's hat I do not see the Biblical or other, similar, laws as different in kind from our own prohibitions on a certain range of sexual practices.