[ExI] Tolerance

[Ben Zaiboc]

From: Post Futurist <p0stfuturist at yahoo.com> wrote:

> putting aside the metaphysics involved, I can think of one practical reason right off the bat to respect-- but not necessarily like-- religion.
Say there was no religious prohibition on adultery. Then more husbands than would otherwise cheat on their wives, more families would eventually break up, the wives and children get on welfare, and libertarians have more lazy people to complain about who don't take care of their children. We can't have that?:)


Aha.  I received a digest out of order, which is why I missed this.  It was Emlyn, not you, who posted the stats about divorce.

Anyway, this all depends on a bunch of very conventional assumptions:

That not having a religious prohibition on 'adultery' would mean more husbands having extramarital sex.
That 'cheating' on your wife is necessarily bad, and without her consent, etc.
That this would lead to the breakup of families.
That families breaking up would lead to wives and children on welfare.
That people on welfare are lazy.
That lazy people on welfare complain about their children not being taken care of.


A pretty tenuous chain of assumptions, I think.

As most religions tend to reinforce these conventions, I'd say they have more of a negative than a positive effect.  Don't you think people would be happier if their religion said it was fine to have extramarital sex providing everyone involved was fully aware of what was going on, and  agreed to it?  It's the abrahamic religions' attitude of fear and disgust towards sex that created these problems in the first place, and you're saying you respect them for this?

There are a large (and growing) number of polyamorous people for whom these problems don't exist, because they take the trouble to communicate with each other, and are honest with each other.  I've never actually seen what any of the majority religions' attitude on polyamory is, but I'd hazard a guess that it's not a supportive one.

Ben Zaiboc