What is the point of abstinence? If you love someone then why do some legal papers saying that you're married mean anything?

Well if you love someone, you might want to sign some contractual agreements to protect them legally.

There is a problem when the young have children. It often interrupts or stops their education leading to lives of poverty. Over all not a good situation for any society. You can lower the legal age of marriage but is that a fair resort for the young who haven't had a chance to explore the world yet much beyond physical terms so to speak.

Depending on the age of the parent, they may or may not even be ready to accept the responsibilies and demands of raising a child. Few have the economic means on their own.

It is more cost effective to prevent the pregnancy in the first place. Abstinence poses as the least offensive in terms of moral issues. Its also the cheapest. Just not effective when examined in terms of teen pregnancy. It also prevents the spread of disease. It is also the strictest and requires the most restraint upon those who are exploring the world. Its often viewed as a parental restraint upon those at an age of rebellion so to speak.

We already have a topic on this, in the "Other" Category. It's listed here: Premarital sex.

It's a long topic, but please read through it. I think there are some good arguments from a number of different of angles.

However, in that thread, the focus is on "non-religious considerations." I think we can keep this thread open, if we are going to talk about sex and religion. However, if you want to talk about economic considerations, social considerations, political considerations, please refer to the other topic.

That being said, the focus on abstinence before marriage in the religious sense has to do with the sancitity/holiness of marriage (that is, of God becoming manifest in the act of marriage), and with religious views on the body and on sexuality as a whole.

If you're not religious, then yes, marriage might be just a signing of a piece of paper.

Well since psycholopher narrowed this topic down to abstinence with regards to religious considerations i will answer.

-The point of abstience is to put sex in its intended context [marriage]. Outside of that context it is a perversion of man defying the purpose of God. No i don't just mean having children, God has intended for us to have sex in a marital relationship for countless reasons. Some of these reasons are probably in the topic psycholopher listed.
-The papers don't, the covenant between one man and one is what God recognizes as a holy bond. What then is the significance of the papers? Kinda just make the covenant more official (though people still break it).

I only answer this because i believe anything i have to say about marriage only has significance if one is seeking the will of God. If you don't really care for God's blessing in a relationship, then go ahead screw around (though you will still be subject to the judgement of God) and the only point of abstinence is for social reasons.

I sorta understood it as the papers were mere showing of your commitment to other to your "holy bond" that you've made with a partner in front of God. Merely a human showing of a divine commitment.

The meaning of marriage is only symbolic. From a cold, logical, and unemotional standpoint marriage means nothing. Marriage is a cutural fabrication. It is up to you to decide if this fabrication is importatnt or not. To me, marriage is sacred.

I also think the government needs to get out of the marriage business.

I disagree. I regard marraige as one of the greatest things ever. I believe marraige to be the joining of two people for all eternity, not just life on earth. Marraige is sacred and it's what keeps culture together. Without the bond of marraige, culture as we know it would be completely different, chaotic even because you wouldn't have the commitment to your partner to support them and to help eachother raise children.

Families are the most basic organization of the world and without marraige, families I believe would not be held together and we'd be seeing a heck of a lot more problems than we do now.

Now on topic with abstinence...I firmly believe in abstinence. Pre-marital sex is dangerous and unnecessary. If you love someone, sure you can show it, but sex should be reserved for after marraige when there's a real purpose behind it besides your own personal desires. I agree with everything Keys said. It's just smarter to go with absitence.

On the religious side of the issue, I consider pre-marital sex abusing the body which God has given us. In the scriptures, the body is reffered to as temples. The body is sacred and a gift from God to help us learn so we can be more like Him. Having a sexual relationship with someone without the intent of having children to raise and support is violating the sacred nature of the body. I'll just leave my points at that. :D

I think there's a difference between love and lust, and if you really love someone you can prove it by withholding from sex.

Just remember, they won’t be attractive forever so it’s better to find someone you can live with for a lifetime rather than to sleep with for a season.

Fornication and adultery are considereed sins so there is no other right way to “do it.” (no pun intended)

It does have its uses in society itself.
It seems silly that if the body was a temple, sex would ruin it. Isn't sex natural? Obviously this is up for interpretation. In the ancient days, Hindus had sex in their temples... now we do not. Nor does any religion condone it. According to the Kama Sutra, fornication is all right as long as you marry the person afterwards, otherwise, it's wrong.

Sex is dangerous, yes, but then again, isn't crossing the road also? I'm not promoting pre-marital sex nor do I believe in it, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it if you do, even from my religious standpoint.

Marriage has its uses, and in Hinduism, we believe you marry that same person in continuous lives, but if you truly love someone, papers, vows, and rituals truly mean nothing.