Premarital Sex
The Issue of Premarital Sex
Premarital sex seems to be a black and white issue. Someone either participates or they don’t, but when looking deeper into the ethical issues of premarital sex the issue becomes very gray. Some would say premarital sex is someone’s right to their personal sexual happiness, but others would say it is a byproduct of other factors in one life. Relationships and marriage should be based on a mutual love, but when premarital sex is involved there is the issue of lust. Does this person someone is about to marry love them for who they are or love them for what they are? Some argue people who engage in premarital sexual activities turn their partner into a sex object meaning they treat their partner like
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“The sole condition on which we are free to make use of our sexual desires depends on the right to dispose over the person as a whole.” (Kant 717) What Kant means by this is marriage.
If I have the right over the whole person, I have also right over the part, and so I have the right to use that person’s sexual organs for the satisfaction of sexual desire. But how am I to obtain these rights over the whole person? Only by giving that person the same right over the whole of myself. This happens only in marriage” (717).
Such love should only be expressed in monogamous relationships between man and wife. He argues this sex is more rewarding than any anyone had when trying to feed their sexual appetites. “Thus sexuality leads to a union of human beings, and in that union alone its exercise is permissible.” (Kant 718).
A Right to Sexual Happiness In society people are constantly seeking satisfaction with life. Sometimes however what people think make them happy only make them happy because society says it should make them happy. People are taught they have a right to happiness; that is should simply occur in their life because they are alive. A right many people think they have is a right to sexual happiness. C.S. Lewis said, “A right to happiness doesn’t, for me, make much more sense than a right to be six feet tall, or to
In Virtue Ethics, the author Richard Taylor goes into detail when explaining the basis of happiness involving pleasures. Taylor felt that most people were not interested in finding out what happiness truly is because they already possess an idea of what it entails. People appear unwilling to examine their own misconception of happiness, so they often look to pleasures as a form of happiness. Happiness and pleasures may seem similar because people often relate them, but they are ultimately different. Happiness is complicated because of all that it takes to reach its end.
Some people consider freedom the meaning of the good life. Thoreau teaches that the good life is “freedom from desire.” To have a good life people must be free to make their own choices and mistakes. However, other people have a different opinion about the good life—Andrew Carnegie believes people can find the good life through success and wealth. Yet still, others want neither of these, choosing instead to stay innocent with no responsibilities like Adam and Eve, free from decisions and the stresses of everyday life. Another view is Freud’s Pleasure Principle that suggests people are interested only in fun and doing whatever they want all the time. Moreover, these people don’t want to worry about anything else.
“Happiness is in the enjoyment of man’s chief good. Two conditions of the chief good: 1st, Nothing is better than it; 2nd, it cannot be lost against the will” (Augustine 264-267). As human
The Article “Love People, Not Pleasure,” written by Arthur C. Brooks argues that many people assume the things we are attracted to will relieve suffering and bring happiness. In the article Brooks questions what unhappiness is, Brooks states that Happiness and unhappiness are related and they are not actually opposites. In the article Brooks mentions people assume that fame, money, material things and pleasure will relieve suffering and bring happiness. Brooks offers many ways that people actually are increasing their suffering and making their selves unhappy because they are assuming those things we are attracted to will help them.
The Natural Law approach to pre-marital sex is relatively simple: sex is strictly for married couples only. This is because Natural Law is
Mankind must by this time have acquired positive beliefs as to the effects of some actions on their happiness; and the beliefs which have thus come down are the rules of morality for the multitude, and for the philosopher until he has succeeded in finding better. That philosophers might easily do this, even now, on many subjects; that the received code of ethics is by no means of divine right; and that mankind have still much to learn as to the effects of actions on general happiness, I admit or rather earnestly maintain.
As Kupperman states, although “happiness” and pleasure are used interchangeably, there is a distinct difference between the two. While pleasure has a direct source of its joy to an object and is typically short lasted at a time, happiness is a general feeling one has over a time period whether it is a season or lifetime. Someone could be happy with only few pleasures or even have experience great pleasure and still lack a positive feeling for life. People would like to experience more “pleasure” if it had the same enjoyed circumstances as before. Kupperman says to determine the most valuable life; it can either be viewed as one with the most pleasure or with the most utility (pleasure minus pain).
The Church teaches that sexual intercourse has two overall meanings: The Unitive and Procreative Dimension. Unitive Dimension refers to the expression of love towards our spouse and the Procreative Dimension which is the bringing forth of life. The Church teaches that these two dimensions cannot be separated, and both must be accepted. Therefore, when we choose to abort a pregnancy, this is selfishness on our ends. Current society norms includes having intercourse because of the want and desire of it. However, the people whom participate in pregnancies do not want to accept the procreative dimension of
In modern society as the idea of sex and relationships becomes more liberal the purpose of sex and relationships comes under further analysis. In what is really a matter of just under a century sex before marriage has transformed from a concept that was once expected to one which is rarely practiced and as the attitude towards single mothers takes a similar U-turn we are forced to analyse the purpose of such concepts. Nowadays by many, sex is seen more and more as a leisurely activity which is in stark contrast to the idea previously held where the purpose of sex was seen as purely for reproductory purposes. It therefore raises the question of whether we should have the
According to the classic sense, a life full of happiness is a life that manifests wisdom, kindness, and goodness. However happiness has been twisted by a secular culture and the classic sense has given away to “pleasurable satisfaction”. Pleasurable satisfaction depends on external circumstances going well. Moreland points out that because of this the modern sense of happiness, “pleasurable satisfaction”, is unstable and varies with life’s circumstances. Pleasurable satisfaction becomes increasingly addictive and enslaving if it becomes the dominant aim of one’s life. By contrast, classical happiness brings freedom and power to life as one ought, as one increasingly becomes a unified person who lives for a cause bigger than one’s self. Western culture has been disillusioned into seeking happiness as their main priority in life. Although, happiness is important, when its importance becomes exaggerated, it leads to a loss of purpose in life, and even depression. What Western cultures need to realize is that true happiness can never be achieved. Over the past 50 years, levels of health, wealth, and liberties have increased, but levels of happiness haven’t.
The Christian religion implements the use of scripture as the highest command for the way in which sexual ethics is implemented. Christian teaching explores several issues in light of sexuality such as extra-marital and pre-marital sex, homosexuality and pro-creation and I will write about these in this essay.
In part one of our book, “The Good Life,” we studied five different philosopher’s viewpoints on what is needed in order for a person to have a good, fulfilling life. They all included the concepts of pleasure and happiness to some extent in their theories, but they all approached the ideas in different ways. The two hedonists we studied, Epicurus and John Stuart Mill, place heavy emphasis on the importance of pleasure. They both believe that pleasure is a necessity in the ideal life. Jean Kazez agreed with their viewpoints in her theory and said that happiness was a necessity for a good life. Epicurus and Mill also argue that there is nothing else that we ultimately desire beyond pleasure and that it is an intrinsic good.
The everlasting question of "What is Happiness?" has been inquired since the creation of men. Unfortunately, the only agreed answer that humanity came up with is that all the creatures seek happiness, but no one has the concrete directions for achieving it. Our libraries are overwhelmed with books about happiness, but no dictionary definition explains which path men must take to be happy. No mathematician gave us the axiom which we could use to solve the problem of living in bliss. No scientist brought up the formula of fusing certain ingredients to produce the "drink of happiness". Still almost all the people consider that their ultimate purport in
Premarital sex goes against God's law so our relationship with God is destroyed. Penance can heal our relationship with God, but the emotional ties that go along with premarital sex can hurt a person for life. Many couples that have premarital sex often do not stay together in marriage. Many people have strong emotional hardships that they go through after having premarital sex. Premarital sex doesn't just lead to sin; it leads to a separation of God and your family and friends.
Over many years, the views of premarital sex have been becoming increasingly more tolerant. The whole reasoning behind why sex was created is lost in the minds of society and used for pleasure and own physical satisfaction. There are negative consequences for these actions leading to guilt, depression, and numbness to intimate relationships. Having strong parental influence can also strongly affect the outcomes of adolescence and causal sex. Additionally, marriage can be