Ardent American Patriot and Lover of Israel
Posts tagged marriage
Science and the Bible Agree: Casual Sex Is Bad
Jul 23rd
by Brian Thomas, M.S.*
Countless television programs and movies portray casual sex as “no big deal,” or even normal. But according to the scientific data, that view is all wrong. As it turns out, the brain chemistry associated with sex is exclusively conducive to marriage.
Doctors Joe McIlhaney and Freda McKissic Bush laid out the scope of current medical knowledge regarding casual sex in their 2008 book Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex Is Affecting Our Children.1 Increases in dopamine, a brain chemical that gives a sensation of satisfaction, accompany exciting and rewarding experiences. This stimulates a desire for more of the activity that brings the sensation. However, the authors noted that dopamine is values-neutral. The same dopamine-associated sense of well-being can result from both good and bad, healthy and harmful actions.
According to McIlhaney and Bush, when a woman is touched in a loving way, her brain secretes oxytocin, which activates feelings of closeness and trust. Breastfeeding has a similar effect, encouraging mommy-baby bonding. More intimate physical contact produces more oxytocin, which leads to a greater desire for that close feeling.
Oxytocin production, like dopamine, is not controlled by conscience or consciousness, but is a physiological effect of intimate contact. When this is experienced outside the commitment of marriage, the authors noted that women can become deceived into thinking a bad relationship is good because of the effects of touch-dependent oxytocin. And when that relationship ends, the broken bond and feelings of betrayal of trust can lead to severe emotional trauma.
For men, an effect of vasopressin—which floods a man’s brain during intercourse—is that it leads to a bonded feeling with his partner. Research shows that if he has intercourse with multiple partners, the bonded feeling is dissipated, eventually imperiling a man’s ability to form long-term attachments.
Evolution is only “interested” in mankind having an effective anatomical mechanism to propagate. Any biological imperative to mate and pass on one’s genes would not necessarily be tied to a long-term relationship. On the contrary, the more partners one has, the more opportunities there are for diverse offspring.
But the human brain appears to be specifically designed to encourage monogamous, trust, and commitment-based marriages—even to the point of possessing intricately coordinated brain chemical production and detection wired to touch sensors to produce feelings of intimacy.
These intricate features of human brains match well with God’s design for marriage. The existence of these bond-encouraging physiological systems is just what would be expected from a Creator who intended a married couple to become “one flesh.”2
The texts of both Hooked and of Scripture indicate that those who follow God’s monogamous plan for sexuality—whether intentionally following the Bible’s instructions or not—have healthier and happier relationships with their spouses.
References
- McIlhaney, J. S. and F. McKissic Bush. 2008. Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex Is Affecting Our Children. Chicago, IL: Northfield Publishing. For a review of the book, see Segelstein, M. The science of sex. One News Now. Posted on onenewsnow.com June 16, 2009, accessed June 24, 2009.
- Genesis 2:24.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
The Creator of Marriage
Apr 17th
"Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" (Matthew 19:4-6)
The Lord Jesus has settled forever (for those who believe His words) the question of human origins and the historicity of the Genesis account of creation. God created Adam and Eve as full-grown adults in the beginning, united as husband and wife – not a population of primates slowly evolving into people over millions of years. The multitude of skeptical scientists and liberal theologians who have insisted that the "two" accounts of creation in the first two chapters of Genesis contradict each other here stand sharply rebuked by the Creator, Himself, for Christ quoted specifically from both Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, thus accepting both of them as valid, historical, and complementary accounts of the same event.
Furthermore, He who is the heavenly Bridegroom confirmed the Genesis teaching that the first and most basic of all human institutions was the home, and that marriage was designed by its Creator to be monogamous and permanent.
Although modern evangelicals may have differing opinions concerning acceptable criteria for divorce and remarriage, it is obvious that "from the beginning it was not so." The ideal marriage is even used by Paul as a picture of the loving, permanent union of Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5:25-27). God, in His grace, does forgive sin when it is confessed and forsaken–even sin against the marriage covenant–but this does not eliminate the accompanying suffering and heartbreak.
How much better to follow God’s creative purpose in all things, especially concerning marriage and the home. HMM
This article was originally published June, 2008. "The Creator of Marriage", Institute for Creation Research, http://www.icr.org/article/creator-marriage (accessed April 17, 2009).
