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What exactly do you mean by "polygamy"? "Polygamy", as referred to on this site, is meant in its popular usage, where one husband has more than one wife at the same time. This is technically known as "polygyny", but you would have to be really keen to know that. On this site "Polygamy" does not refer to "polyandry", where one wife has more than one husband at once. That is a practice which has never been prevalent in human societies and which major world religions condemn. It is also a practice that the site administrator feels personally unable to support. But surely polygamy is illegal!
Ah yes, well spotted! It is illegal, if you are the sort of pedantic person who insists on registering all their marriages in the standard legally-binding sort of way. However, if you " ve decided to be a polygamist and put Multiple Marriage into practice, then you " re hardly the sort of person to let social conventions about registering marriages get in the way. You can have a perfectly pleasant and happy marriage without the tedious requirement for bits of parchment. And you can have a better marriage than provided for by modern states, because signing up to their view of marriage means signing up to their view of divorce. Proper Polygamists don't see such a big need for divorce.
If you want to start a new marriage, that's fine, but you shouldn't have to wreck an existing marriage to do it. In fact, to be absolutely accurate, it is bigamy which is often illegal. Bigamy is the criminal offence of registering a second marriage when a first marriage is still recognised. Polygamy can be practiced without breaking the law simply by registering no more than one of the marriages.
Where bigamy is illegal, polygamy can often be lawfully practiced. But shouldn't it be illegal? Yes - registering multiple marriage in today's society should be illegal, as long as people have the understanding that marriages are monogamous. If people break the law, then they deserve to be punished, for often they are deceiving the state, and also deceiving their wives. Brides should understand they are entering a polygamous state. But if they understand that, and if they don't break the law by registering the marriage, then they can be polygamists with a clear conscience.
Here are a few words on the benefits polygamy has for women and the controls it places on men. Automatic childcare in a sexist society gives women more effective choice to have a career without devaluing the role of homemaker. Being able to marry men who are already married means that women can marry men who have already proved themselves, therefore minimising their risk. Being able to marry the men who attract most women means they don't have to settle just for what's left after other women have the best pickings. Having the possibility that a husband can remarry without divorce extends practical security to a woman. She needn't worry about losing her husband and income as she loses her looks, because if her husband is attracted by a younger woman, he doesn't even have to think about leaving his wife.
Polygamy removes the pressure on a husband to commit adultery, and removes damaging deceit from a marriage. Polygamy provides a method where a woman can have a female friend for life as well as a husband. Polygamy therefore provides more people and a better chance of meeting diverse needs. Polygamy provides a potential for at least three adult incomes, reducing state dependence and the fear of unemployment. If a man wants to have another sexual partner in a polygamous system then he has to meet his responsibilities - pay for any children produced from all his relationships without priority being given to those from a 'legal' relationship. Polygamy removes or reduces the seduction of innocent young women - If a man promises to marry her, he cannot use his existing marriage as an excuse for not fulfilling a promise.
Polygamy reduces the number of women who are available. Currently, with more women than men, this 'cheapens' women. With less women available their 'value' goes up. In other words, polygamy makes men have to try harder and do better with women if they are to win them in competition with other men. Should a woman be allowed two husbands? If not, why not?
This site teaches that polygamy is a morally acceptable lifestyle. But we use "polygamy" in its popular sense of a man having a number of wives. We do not support group marriage, promiscuity or "polyandry" - that practice where a woman has more than one husband. The first and most basic reason is that God made it that way.
The rest of the material on this site shows that God allows men to have more than one wife - The Bible shows that a woman can only "So then if, while her husband is living she marries another man, she shall be called an adulteress, but if her husband has died, she is free from that law, so that she is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. " Romans Chapter 7 v 3 This verse stops women from having more than one husband living at any one time. It does not stop men from having more than one wife because firstly, it quite simply doesn't say it, and secondly, it is clearly not a general principle which applies regardless of sex. That can be seen in the immediate context. The reason the Bible gives is that a woman is under the law of her husband until he dies. While the Bible does talk of marriage partners having authority over each other's bodies, it never talks of a man being under the law of his wife.
In fact, it numerous places the Bible indicates that that would be intolerable, such as 1 Timothy 2 v 12 "I do not allow a woman to teach or to usurp authority over the man." In fact, Romans 7 makes this clear. The passage is comparing the woman to the individual believer, being dead to the law of Moses so that they can be married to Christ and be under his law. Now it would be inappropriate to say that Christ was under the law of the believer. And in the same way it is inappropriate to say that a husband is under the law of his wife. And because of that it is clear that the restriction in Romans 7 of a woman to one husband cannot be transformed into a restriction of a man to only one wife. The second reason is related to the first through God's system of leadership. 1 Cor 11 shows that This would be defined by our society as sexist.
The Bible clearly treats men and women differently - so does God - otherwise I would be able to have babies too! ! The order does not signify inequality. The Bible teaches that Christ is God just as much as the Father. They are co-equal but have different roles. Obviously, man is not equal to Christ - so the passage does allow for inequality. But when we return to man and woman we can see that they are equal, perhaps in the same way that the Father and Christ are equal.
But equality does not mean they are exactly the same or have the same rights and responsibilities. Hence the man is the head of woman - he takes the lead. The Scriptures show that the man must love his wives and obviously this will affect his decisions. In case you think I am now talking about a different subject, here is the punchline - "no man can Christian teaching is that you cannot follow different leaders - you will hate one and love another.
So it is in marriage. A woman cannot have two husbands because she cannot follow two leaders. A man can have two wives because it is perfectly possible to lead more than one person. This can be seen in the phrase in 1 Corinthians 7 v 2 which many monogamists quote out of context - "Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. " The words for "his own" and "her own" in this verse are different, and it is not simply a gender difference.
This is what we would expect if the way in which they are the other's own differs according to gender. If you check the word for "her own" and look up Romans 14, you will see it is the same word used there of a servant and "his own master." This shows that, if Paul had believed in monogamy, he could have used the same word for both sexes in 1 Corinthians 7. But he didn't. It also means that a woman has her own husband in the same way that a servant has his own master.
Just as a master can have more than one servant, so a husband can have more than one wife, and in the same way as a servant can only have one master, so a wife can only have one Anything beyond what the Bible teaches is speculation. You can read on and consider my speculation if you wish, but it is still speculation. My acceptance of polygyny and rejection of polyandry is based on my belief in the infallibility of the Bible - and I would encourage you to base your beliefs on the Bible and not on my speculation. 1. The first thing to note is that polyandry is very rare - to the extent of being a freak of nature - the vast majority of societies which allow polygamy allow it for men and not for women. I do not know of anywhere where the two systems run together - it has the potential to get horrendously confusing if it does. It is likely to be more than just chance which makes this 2.
A woman always knows whether a baby is her baby. A man doesn't - unless he knows that the woman was only sleeping with him. To preserve the bond between parents and children, women cannot have more than one partner of the opposite sex. Men can. If a man suspects he is paying for a child who is not his he may want to leave. If a man wants to leave, in a polyandrous situation he can always deny responsibility for the children in the relationship.
This leaves the family at risk. Practically speaking we know that men tend towards providing for the family - polyandry greatly increases the risk that the family will break apart and everyone will be poorer. 3. There are more women of marriageable age in the world than there are men. This means that many women who want to marry cannot, because of the sheer weight of numbers. For more detail on this see the "Vital Statistics" part of this site. Polyandry makes this problem worse.
Polygamy can remove the problem all together. 4. According to leading economists, the problem should be thought if in terms of demand and supply. When men are allowed more than one wife, there is suddenly an increase in demand for women (as married men can be legitimate prospects as well as single men). This means that their "price" (what a man is willing to do for them to get and keep them) goes up. Similarly there is a decrease in demand for men (as women who may have married them now have a far wider choice). This means that their "price" (what a woman is willing to do for them to get and keep them) goes down.
So - according to leading economists, if a man is allowed more than one wife the situation for all women is improved - they have more done for them, and don't have to do as much, but if women were allowed more than one husband their situation would be much worse - they would have to do a great deal to get a man, and he would have to do even less than he does now. Put simply, economics teaches that when men have more wives it is better for women, and that when women have more husbands it is worse for women. This combines with the imbalance in numbers of men and women to mean that polyandry and compulsory monogamy are both 5. It has been suggested by some that women are naturally monogamous and that men are naturally polygamous. From the viewpoint of natural selection, men have more to gain from multiple partners because they can have more children and propagate their genes, but women can at the most only be pregnant once every nine months, and the number of partners they have does nothing to change this. Indeed, some biologists now adopt theories on reproduction which take account of sperm competition - whereby seemingly excess sperm lie in wait to prevent sperm from another partner fertilizing an egg.
There is no similar response in the female. The natural order seems to uphold the idea of women having one 6. Many who do not accept Christianity would still accept the basic point that leadership tends to be male. This means they can accept the basic logic of the Christian leadership argument - that a family needs only one leader and that two leaders is not viable. 7. There is more to come - I just haven't had chance to write it yet.
An email to this page alleged "in the western world, there are barely more women than men; it is essentially 50 / 50 ." Such a view is untrue and misleading. The reply is printed below so that people may be able to appreciate the negative side of enforced monogamy. You cannot have it both ways - it is either equal or there is a surplus. There is no way a surplus is 'essentially' 50 / 50.
The truth is that the size of the excess varies from country to country. Left on its own there is a statistically significant excess of women. The surplus is actually greater than a first examination of statistics will show - as an excess of young boys is quickly turned into a surplus of females due to differential mortality rates. For your information, my examination of the official statistics for 1994 in the United Kingdom shows that a population of 58. 4 million people breaks down into 28. 6 million males and 29. 8 million females. In other words there were 1. 2 million more females than males in the United Kingdom at this time. That represents a male: female split of 49: 51 (with the male ratio rounded If you just count those above marriageable age (which is sensible when you are talk...
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Research essay sample on Men And Women Break The Law
