With a more rigorous understanding of early religious thought most people realize that a lot of the rules had real biological value, even if they were shrouded in theology. For instance, calling homosexuality abnormal was probably done to promote reproduction. Disavowing adultery was meant to increase the integrity of the nuclear family.
But chastity was one that never really made sense to me (although I never thought about it much), until recently I had a 'duh' moment and realized that for the entirety of history birth control didn't exist, and sex often meant you had a baby. The extension of that is that pre-marital sex could, and often did lead to bad situations for people, which would be why chastity was such a prominent concept throughout history.
So a few questions:
1) Does my explanation for this phenomenon seem about right?
2) Was chastity, historically, common throughout most cultures of the world?
3) What elements are similar among unchaste social groups?
4) What elements are similar among chaste social group?
But chastity was one that never really made sense to me (although I never thought about it much), until recently I had a 'duh' moment and realized that for the entirety of history birth control didn't exist, and sex often meant you had a baby. The extension of that is that pre-marital sex could, and often did lead to bad situations for people, which would be why chastity was such a prominent concept throughout history.
So a few questions:
1) Does my explanation for this phenomenon seem about right?
2) Was chastity, historically, common throughout most cultures of the world?
3) What elements are similar among unchaste social groups?
4) What elements are similar among chaste social group?