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Over the years, the notions of sex education, sexuality, and culture have been closely interrelated, with the latter aspect obtaining a major influence on the human perception of sex as a process. According to the researchers, the socio-cultural background of a community plays one of the most significant roles in terms of modern sex education, claiming less developed countries to pay minor attention to the issue (Vanwesenbeeck et al., 2019).
The problem is especially evident once the process of premarital sex is concerned within any social unit, emphasizing its influence on the lifestyle of young adults. The fact of having sexual intercourse before becoming a full-scale family has always been a social dilemma, regardless of geographical location and cultural affiliation. The major pressure factor in the context, however, belongs to religion, as various beliefs consider the following action as a spiritually inappropriate endeavor. Hence, in order to obtain a better understanding of the issue, the following paper will be primarily aimed at defining the patterns of connection between religion and premarital sex prevalence and perception.
To begin with, it is necessary to dwell upon the peculiarities of perception of premarital sex among various religions in order to define divergent and convergent features of the presented outlooks. The context of Christianity and Bible teachings has always been one of the most controversial in terms of the definition of love and sex as major constituents of a fruitful and fulfilling marriage. Generally, the Christian attitude towards premarital sex may be divided into two major branches.
On the one hand, some worshippers believe the act of sexual intercourse to be an exclusively procreative matter that should be performed only when children are intended as an outcome of the process. Hence, the notion of premarital sex is not considered as an option due to the fact that procreation without a family unit is not encouraged by the church. On the other hand, Christians perceive sex as a manifestation of love, with the primary intention of the act being the process of pleasure.
Although both these attitudes find their support in society, it is the latter definition of sex that is more applicable to the reality of the 21st century. Moreover, according to some Christian authors, a couple is free to have sexual intercourse as far as it is performed for the sake of sharing love with each other (Osei-Tutu et al., 2020). One of the major roots of such disparity is the fact that the Bible writing itself does not explicitly prohibit premarital sex. However, while focusing on the positive perspective of the issue, Christians encourage purity within a relationship, which implies restraining from having sex before marriage (Osei-Tutu et al., 2020). As a result, Christians, while not considering premarital sex as a severe sin, still try to refrain from the temptation of premarital intercourse, even when talking about a long-term relationship.
Unlike Christianity, Eastern religions like Buddhism are more focused on the notion of spiritual pleasure that may be obtained from the act of intercourse. In general perception, sex is considered to be a rather biological needs aimed at satisfying one’s physiological desire rather than contributing to one’s mental growth and fulfillment. Hence, as far as Buddhism is concerned, the notion of sexuality is defined rather radically in terms of the action’s primary motive (Ilangakoon, 2016). When done for the sake of fulfilling one’s biological needs, sexual intercourse is generally frowned upon, whereas the spiritual aspect of sex is considered as a process that helps people achieve the desired extent of enlightenment and Zen.
Moreover, the idea of having sex is only acceptable in cases when both partners are committed to each other regardless of their marital status. When choosing between the act of self-gratification and intercourse between the two people who love each other, the latter option would always be better in the context of Buddhism (Ilangakoon, 2016). To conclude, it may be outlined that Buddhism does not generally recognize such an issue as premarital sex, as it is not concerned about the legal justifications of the relationship as long as it is justified on the level of spirituality.
While the aforementioned religions are not explicitly rejecting one’s right to have sex before marriage, commenting more on the conditions of such a unity, there are certain beliefs that refuse to accept the existence of such an endeavor. A prime example of such a religion is Islam, which is frequently associated with quite an extensive set of prohibitions, the violation of which leads to grave complications for an individual.
As far as the notion of premarital sex is concerned, Islam does not even suggest that people may have the idea to have sexual intercourse prior to the marriage or outside of it. According to the latest sociological researchers on the matter, many residents of the Islamic world consider premarital sex to be a sin more severe than physical abuse and violence or theft (Inglehart, 2017). Considering the aforementioned data, it would be safe to assume that the overall perception of sexuality within the religion remains rather limited when compared to the tendencies of the modern world.
Having considered the examples of the relationship between religion and premarital sex, it should be outlined that while the former plays one of the most crucial roles in the opinion-shaping process, it is the social context of the religious people that matters the most in terms of the notion perception. That is, when speaking of the young adults and adolescents of different religions, the religion itself sometimes is not as significant as the impact of one’s community.
For example, when speaking of Christianity, most young adults, while influenced by the faith culture, do not consider premarital sex as a sin. Such a tendency might have arisen due to the fact that they are more influenced by the ideas of democracy that does not restrain them from following their desires as long they do not violate the freedom of another person. However, when speaking of the youth surrounded by Christian dogmas on a daily basis, the data shows that they still tend to perceive the following endeavor as a forbidden act of faith negligence (Yong & Simon, 2020).
Another sociological study is related to the observation of young people who do not identify themselves as religious. Surprisingly, the data accumulated in Canada demonstrated that young people who were raised in a religious family still had issues with the acceptance of premarital sex even when people could not identify themselves with any religion (Young, 2018). It means that the modern religious influence on culture does not make people refuse to have premarital sex yet makes them feel rather guilty about the choices they made.
Finally, one more sociological study was conducted among mostly Muslim Iranian students of different specializations in order to define whether one’s degree influences the perception of major religious dogmas. The results have shown that the perception of premarital sex was rather different, with art students feeling no need for restraint and medical students expressing a high level of concern regarding the issue claiming the purity was of crucial significance in terms of family creation (Mokhtari et al., 2020). Having analyzed the following information, it may be concluded that the process of perception of premarital sex, while affected by religion, remains a highly individual matter for every individual who gains experience from a variety of other socio-cultural aspects. Moreover, the scope of sexuality perception in conservative states like Iran continues to be centered around the notion of physical purity before marriage instead of placing major emphasis on the aspect of spirituality.
Summarizing the information provided in the paper, it may be outlined that religion continues to have an explicit effect on people’s perception of premarital sex and its complications for the soul and body. In terms of the following paper, the peculiarities of premarital sex perception were regarded from the perspectives of Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam. The following religions were chosen due to their quantitative distribution in the world and various disparities in the overall outlook. As a result, it was estimated that Islam was one of the most rigid religions in terms of concept perception, with Christianity and Buddhism taking the second and the third position, respectively. The primary effect on people’s attitude was related to an individual’s social environment and background. The future implications of the matter may concern the analysis of other social and cultural factors that could potentially modify the tendency of having premarital sex.
References
Ilangakoon, S. (2016). Sexual ethics: A need indeed, Buddhist ethics as a model. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(2), 134-139.
Inglehart, R. (2017). Changing values in the Islamic world and the West. Values, Political Action, and Change in the Middle East and the Arab Spring, 3-24.
Mokhtari, S., Shariat, S. V., Ardebili, M. E., & Shalbafan, M. (2020). Iranian students’ attitudes toward premarital sex, marriage, and family in different college majors. Journal of American College Health, 1-9.
Osei-Tutu, A., Oti-Boadi, M., Akosua Affram, A., Dzokoto, V. A., Asante, P. Y., Agyei, F., & Kenin, A. (2020). Premarital counseling practices among Christian and Muslim lay counselors in Ghana. Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling, 74(3), 203-211.
Vanwesenbeeck, I., Flink, I., van Reeuwijk, M., & Westeneng, J. (2019). Not by CSE alone… furthering reflections on international cooperation in sex education. Sex Education, 19(3), 297-312.
Yong, H. T. S., & Simon, A. (2020). Perceptions of premarital sex among students at a faith-based university. Human Behavior, Development, and Society, 21(1), 16-27.
Young, P. D. (2018). Influences of religion on the sexual attitudes and practices of Canadian youth: The case of premarital sex. In Youth, Religion, and Identity in a Globalizing Context (pp. 66-77). Brill.
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