Life Without a Net
monogamy
Biblical Marriage: It’s Not What You Think.
Christians are fond of defending the sanctity of Biblical Marriage. One man, one woman, bonded for life, sexually exclusive, and celibate before marriage. The thing is, that’s not in the Bible. In order to find that model of marriage, we have to move much farther forward in history. If anyone was to take the Bible … Continue reading
Competition’s Good For You. If You’re a Sperm.
One of the linchpin arguments against the predominant monogamy/mild polygamy model of human evolution involves sperm competition. Physiologically, humans appear to be “designed” for rather intense sperm competition. While we don’t have the degree of specialization seen in some invertebrates (such as Drosophila), it’s hard to deny that both human sperm and the female reproductive … Continue reading
Practical Non-Monogamy
Over the past week, I’ve devoted a great deal of time to the idea that humans are and always have been non-monogamous. Today I want to examine the possibilities and problems associated with openly practicing non-monogamy. Before I do, I must also throw in a caveat: I am not suggesting that anyone necessarily ought to … Continue reading
Can Non-Monogamy Work Today?
The past two entries I’ve written have laid out a case against long term exclusive monogamy as the “natural state” of human sexuality. Here’s the bullet point summary: Humans are “built” for pluralistic sexual behaviors and multiple lovers, not serial monogamy. The shift to monogamy is caused by a combination of accumulating wealth (since the … Continue reading
If We’re Not Monogamous, then Why Are We Monogamous?
Yesterday, I covered some of the more compelling arguments that have convinced me that humans aren’t “built” for long term sexual monogamy. I also hinted at why I believe monogamy has taken over modern culture — the acquisition of wealth. But there are still a lot of glaring questions, and I’d like to at least … Continue reading
So We Aren’t Monogamous… What Are We?
These days, it’s pretty much only staunchly religious (and profoundly unscientific) pundits claiming that humans are inherently monogamous. The evidence is too ubiquitous, and too overwhelming to ignore. From the archaeological, anthropological, sociological, biological, and anatomical records, we get a clear picture of what humans do. They have sex with multiple partners. But this observation … Continue reading
The Power of Prayer
Recently, I was asked by a reader to opine on the causes of “faith healings.” In a nutshell, my answer went like this: Faith healings are nothing more than placebo effects combined with false attribution errors and confirmation bias. As it was not especially pertinent to the question, I didn’t go into much depth on … Continue reading
Gender Gap: It’s All About Cheating
One of my favorite relationship bloggers, Susan Walsh, has been speculating on the causes and effects of what is called the “hookup culture” for quite some time. In a nutshell, the debate hinges on the expectations of the socio-sexual marketplace versus the emotional and evolutionary sexual drives of women who are apparently engaging in numerous … Continue reading
Infidelity: Blame it on the Boobs
As most of us are aware, humans are not monogamous. We’re sometimes socially monogamous, but in practice almost all of us have more than one sexual partner during a lifetime. As with most behavioral patterns, it would be naive to suggest that there is a single cause for human infidelity, but we can certainly point to some … Continue reading
Vacation
I’ll be on vacation most of this week, 20 miles from the nearest broadband connection. With any luck, I’ll return with a full head of steam (I’m deep in the heart of Fundyland) and a decent suntan. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite articles from the past year. A fellow blogger recently … Continue reading
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