Round 1. Rain King v.s. DeltaNine: Pre-marital Sex

The topic for this debate is "The idea of pre-marital sex has changed over the years and it is now accepted."

Rain King will be arguing for this proposition and will open the debate.
DeltaNine will argue against this proposition.

Each debater will have one opening statement each. This will be followed by 3 alternating replies each. There will then be one closing statement each and no rebuttal.

No post will be longer than 800 words and in the case of the closing statement no longer than 500 words. In the event of a debater posting more than the stated word limit then the excess words will be deleted by me from the bottom. Credits or references at the bottom do not count towards the word total.

Editing is Strictly forbidden. This means any editing, for any reason. Any edited posts will be completely deleted.

Excluding both the opening and closing statements only one image may be included in each post. No more than 5 references can be included at the bottom of each post. Opening and closing statements must not contain any images, and must have no more than 3 references.

Responses should be made within 24 hours, if people are late with their replies, they run the risk of forfeiting their reply and possibly the debate.

Judging will be done by an anonymous panel of 11 judges. After each debate is completed it will be locked and the judges will begin making their decision. Results will be posted by me as soon as a majority (6) is reached.

This debate is now open, good luck to both of you.

Thanks to all involved, and good luck to my opponent.

The practice of premarital sexual intercourse has long been shunned amidst our society, most powerfully from religious organizations which teach that it is a sin.

However, in the last 50 years, premarital sexual promiscuity has been rapidly gaining a stronger foothold. Sex before marriage has rapidly become the norm. It has become a common practice to cohabitate with your significant other, “trying them out” as it were.

All one must do to realize its acceptance is watch a few movies from the last few years.

The fact is, more young people are having more sex than ever before. In fact, according to an article published 6 years ago, (Which, obviously is not current, so the numbers very well may have increased dramatically)

• Most young people begin having sex in their mid-to-late teens, about 8 years before they marry; more than half of 17-year-olds have had intercourse. [1]

At seventeen! As of 2002, the national average age of men at the time of their first marriage was 29. The average age of the women was 27.5. More than half of our teenagers are sexually active at least ten years before marriage. That seems to be a pretty good indication of premarital sex's acceptance. [2]

Early sex's normality is shouted at young people from television, movies, magazines, music, and video games.

Also worth noting is the ongoing gay movement. The majority of homosexual couples, as of late are not married. In fact, a very small percentage of them have attained that status. Gays are, however, widely accepted, with the knowledge that they are practicing premarital sex.

Religious stance has not changed. Rather, we as a society have given in, and as we have, premarital sex has transformed from being frowned upon, or even shunned, to accepted, allowed, and one might say, encouraged.

[1] www.agi-usa.org...

[2] kenmzoka.com...

I wish the best of luck to you, the King of Rain. Thanks to Mac for the set up. Apologies for spelling in advance.



Whilst the instances of pre maritial sex has indeed been steadly rising over the past 50 odd years, so has the need for abstinance.

With the rise of the sexual revolution has come the rise of the Sexually Transmitted Diesese. Reports of clemidia, ghonnaria and AIDS have shot through the roof since the days of free love, not to mention unwanted pregnacys and abortions. Teen age examples of this are predominant on any statistics sheet.

Within marriage you wouldn't find all these things. Because one is only sleeping with their husband or wife there is really no possible way to contract all these vile STDs.

There is also no chance of becoming pregant after having picked someone up at the bar in a drunken fit of hornyness. It would be nice to know who the father is, and conversely, if you've fathered a child, wouldn't it?

There is no question that having premarital sex frequently with various partners greatly increases chances of contracting an STD. That is not the issue.

Whether or not sex outside the institution of marriage is good or bad remains to be seen, and is not the topic of the debate.

Premarital sex has been accepted, if not embraced by our society. Turn to any station of television, or view any movie, listen to a popular rap song, or read a popular novel. Every form of media today shouts out at its consumers that sex before marriage is the norm. If people did not accept, or were put off by the idea of people engaging in sexual activities before marriage, would they patronize the forms of media that encourage such behavior? Absolutely not.

A study of 1792 adolescents ages 12-17 showed that watching sex on TV influences teens to have sex. Youths who watched more sexual content where more likely to initiate intercourse and progress to more advanced noncoital sexual activities... Basically, kids with higher exposure to sex on TV were almost twice as likely than kids with lower exposure to initiate sexual intercourse. [4]

In a sample of programming from the 2001-2002 TV season, sexual content appeared in 64% of all TV programs. Those programs with sexually related material had an average of 4.4 scenes per hour. Talk of sex is more frequent (61%) vs. overt portrayals (32%). 1 out of every 7 programs includes a portrayal of sexual intercourse. [5]

So, kids are watching more and more sex on TV, and studies prove that it increases their chances of having premarital sex.

Here is a statistic that proves the point:

Today 60% of young adults say premarital sex is acceptable and 38% say it is wrong. [1]

Another:

85% to 90% approve of premarital sex for themselves or others (Hunt, 1973, 1975; Hass, 1979, Playboy, 1976) [2]

(sourced many times below)

There it is. Over half of the nations adults approve of premarital sex. Over half of the nations young people also believe it is acceptable.



[1] inside.bard.edu...
[2] mentalhelp.net...
[3] www.adventistreview.org...
[4] www.parentstv.org...
[5]http://ibelgique.ifrance.com/sociomedia/tvstats.htm

Argh, I've completely rooted the debate. I withdraw.

Rain King advances.