Did Nature intend sex to be an act of recreation or procreation?

Pros and cons about sex before marriage, what are the ways of having safe sex, at what age should boys or girls start having sex- there are hundreds of such issues being talked about and there are hundreds of attitudes and opinions about sex. It is a sensitive issue and many cultures do not openly like to discuss it. Sex has been around for as long as mankind and yet it remains one of the most controversial and fascinating issues in most societies.

Nature in her simplicity designed the act of having sex purely for procreation, it is when man started using it as an act of recreation, coupled with morality and ethics that the problems with it started to crop up. This is clearly explained if you take for example the animal kingdom. You don’t see animals or birds mating except in their mating season. They mate when nature calls and their bodies are ready. They don’t deal with issues such as infidelity or cheating or extra marital affairs. (They do have their share of roles and responsibilities in feeding their young, teaching them hunting skills or how to get their food, till the young ones are able to look after themselves.)

It is only when one looks at sex as a tool for enjoyment or anything other than procreation that we find ourselves debating issues such as pros and cons of sex without marriage, the rights and wrongs of sex, or teenage sex, or safe sex!

Just look at that last one there- SAFE SEX. What? I can hear mother nature laugh at that one.

In natures eyes, the consequences of sex were never dangerous or sinful. It was meant to be indulged in for a certain purpose- namely procreation, so if one did conceive, it was just natural. Even our bodies follow nature’s dictates. Most women (if they are tuned in to their bodies) will find that their bodies are naturally most ready for sex in their “fertile period” which is a couple of days after ovulation, about three days in a month.

Look at it this way, if indeed, everyone used or indulged in sex only when they wanted to have children, would the other problems such as extra-marital affairs, teenage pregnancies, infidelity, morality or safe sex even arise? Unwanted or unplanned for pregnancies, rape and prostitution would be non-existent.

Sex and procreation go hand in hand, which is why in society it is considered natural for a couple to have sex when they are married, but sex outside of marriage certainly becomes a point of debate even today. I am not talking here about whether or not children should be born “out of wedlock”, or whether people should get married to have children, or sex as an expression of love or lust, or the use of sex as pure powerful creative energy or as a stress buster, or sex and romance, those are different issues all together, but worth looking at to get our perspective right!