Assignment 2: Critical Thinking Paper
In this paper the argument will be on the importance of celibacy. I myself was celibate until 19, which is when I married my wife. There will be two questions to argue my point "Why not wait?" and "What is the Result of Not Waiting". The most common fallacy is that if you don't have sex before marriage you won't know how to do it, but the reality is neither partner should, and that is part of the fun, learning together, and more importantly it is part of learning one another. Sexual exploration and celibacy after marriage creates a more intimate, long lasting, relationship.
Establishing Credibility
“Sex sells, and thus we constantly hear about the so-called ‘benefits’ of having an active, even promiscuous, sex life. However, we never seem to hear about the whole host of benefits that living without sex can bring. Waiting for sex until marriage is likely to increase your chances of a happy and lasting marriage. Studies have shown that people who have sex before marriage have an increased risk of getting divorced. In the 1970s, only two sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were common, and both were curable. Now as many as 25 STIs have been identified, and several are incurable, including human papilloma virus (HPV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and genital herpes. No drugs can cure these diseases. Contrary to popular belief, HPV, syphilis and genital herpes can be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact, and condoms provide very little protection.”(celibrate.org, 2015) The two questions “Why not Wait” and “What is the Result of Not Waiting” are covered in this paragraph: Understanding that promiscuity can cause you long term effects that are incurable should be enough.
Acknowledging the Audience’s Position Society’s position about sex is that it’s normal to have sex and even that not having sex makes you weird in some way. Today, society’s carefree thinking on sex out of wedlock is simply, “Why not?” Believing that “most are doing it anyway,” school administrators build sexual education programs around this mentality. In fact, the modern adage is true—most are doing it. A 2002 study of 40,000 Americans found that 95 percent had premarital sex. The report by the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit organization that researches sexual health, stated that 93 percent of them did so before age 30 (USA Today). In another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 50 percent of high-school students in 40 American states were said to be sexually active. Is this a bad thing? Most say no. To support this position, some cite the well-documented health benefits of being sexually active. According to WebMD, sex relieves stress, boosts one’s immune system, burns calories, improves heart health, and can reduce the risk of certain cancers. It can even improve the quality of sleep. Lining supermarket check-out lanes, amid candy bars and breath mints, are enticing headlines in bold, eye-catching letters: “101 Sex Secrets,” “43 Ways to Improve Your Love Life,” “15 Ways to Drive Him Wild”. Sex is everywhere. It permeates television shows, the Internet, and magazines. Even children’s movies often have thinly veiled sexual overtones. For more than a century, Western nations have shed every hint of Victorian-era prudery: the “free love” 1960s gave way to the counterculture 70s; standards on sex continued to drop in the 1980s, and even more in the 90s, with a high-profile case involving the President of the United States. In 2012, a similar case involved a top U.S. intelligence leader.
Constructing a Rationale Dr. Sandra Metts asked 286 participants to think about the different turning points in their present or past relationships. One question she hoped to answer was whether it made a difference if the couple had made a commitment to be exclusive and had said “I love you” before or after commencing sexual intimacy. Metts found that when a commitment is made and love is
