The following is an exerpt from an Islamic website, jamaat.org. It rationalizes polygamy. What do you have to say? "Perhaps the aspect of Islam in respect of women which is most prominent in the Western mind is that of polygamy. Firstly let me clarify that Islam does not impose polygamy as a universal practice. The Prophet himself was a monogamist for the greater part of his married life, from the age of twenty-five when he married Khadija until he was fifty when she died. One should therefore regard monogamy as the norm and polygamy as the exception. One may observe that, although it has been abused in some times and some places, polygamy has under certain circumstances a valuable function. In some situations it may be considered as the lesser of two evils, and in other situations it may even be positively beneficial arrangement. The most obvious example of this occurs in times of war when there are inevitably large numbers of widows and girls whose fiancées and husbands have been killed in the fighting. One has only to recall the figures of the dead in the first and second world wars to be aware that literally millions of women and girls lost their husbands and fiancées and were left alone without any income or care or protection for themselves or their children. If it is still maintained that under these circumstances a man may marry only one wife, what options are left to the millions of other women who have no hope of getting a husband? Their choice, bluntly stated , is between a chaste and childless old maidenhood, or becoming somebody's mistress, that is an unofficial second wife with no legal rights for herself or for her children. Most women would not welcome either of these since most women have always wanted and still do want the security of a legal husband and family. The compromise therefore is for women under these circumstances to face that if given the alternative many of them would rather share a husband than have none at all. And there is no doubt that it is easier to share a husband when it is an established and publicly recognized practice than when it is carried on secretly along with attempts to deceive the first wife. And it is no secret that polygamy of a sort is widely carried on in Europe and America. The difference is that while the Western man has no legal obligations to his second, third or fourth mistresses and their children, the Muslim husband has complete legal obligations towards his second, third or fourth wife and their children. There may be other circumstances unrelated to war--individual circumstances, where marriage to more than one wife may be preferable to other available alternatives--for example where the first wife is chronically sick or disabled. There are of course some husbands who can manage this situation, but no one would deny its potential hazards. A second marriage in some cases could be a solution acceptable to all three parties. Again there are cases in which a wife is unable to have children, while the husband very much wants them. Under Western laws a man must either accept his wife's childlessness if he can, or if he cannot he must find a means of divorce in order to marry again. This could be avoided in some cases if the parties agreed on a second marriage. There are other cases where a marriage has not been very successful and the husband loves another woman. This situation is so familiar that it is known as the Eternal Triangle, Under Western laws the husband cannot marry the second woman without divorcing the first one. But the first wife may not wish to be divorced. She may no longer love her husband, but she may still respect him and wish to stay with him for the security of marriage, for herself and their children. Similarly the second woman may not wish to break up the man's first family. There are certain cases such as this where both women could accept a polygamous marriage rather than face divorce on the one hand or an extra-marital affair on the other. I have mentioned some of these examples because to the majority of Westerners polygamy is only thought of in the context of a harem of glamorous young girls, not as a possible solution to some of the problems of Western society itself. I have given some time to it not in order to advocate its indiscriminate use, but in an attempt to show that it is a practice not to be condemned without thinking of its uses and possible benefits in any community."
Quoted for truth K first of all... About widows and war, if you let your women get educations and jobs they don't have it nearly as hard when you get yourself killed fighting off infidels. You could also get rid of the ancient idea of married forever and take on the more modern till death do us part, in which case she is free to marry again and can date at night when she is not WORKING or getting an EDUCATION! Then of course the idea of childlessness... do they not have adoption in Islamic states? Are fertility treatment and surrogate mothers outlawed in favor of handmaids? I would think the story of Abraham would point out the inherent flaws in such a system... Pretty much the rest of this drivel can be solved by the simple idea of wife swapping or what I like to call swinging. I personally don't get into that sort of thing but if you have an issue with your wife being disabled or doesn't love you but doesn't want a divorce then you need to do the swap. Go find an equally unhappy group of sex crazed married couples and learn the ancient art of sharing. Basically the culture the author comes from is so far removed from western culture that all of their comments about it are basically wrong and if they would take up contraception and sex outside of marriage they might actually solve some of their "problems" which really are not so much problems in reality more something invented to defend something Islam is usually attacked with "Mohamed was a polygamist". Seriously if you think your prophet was the man why do you feel the need to defend any of the choices he made? My favorite part of this is "not as a possible solution to some of the problems of Western society itself" what western social problem does polygamy solve?
Bold statement, prove it or I call shenanigans. Personally I don't care, have all the wives or husbands you want, heck why don't we just throw the whole thing out and bang whoever we want whenever. Orgasms will be as free as handshakes and hellos. I just want to see you prove polygamy is more natural, of course I think marriage is unnatural in the first place or we would have been born with rings on our fingers...
All the rest of your statements could be used in the other way as well. If a man cannot provide for his wife due to illness, should she not be allowed a second husband. What about if he cannot father children, and so on and so on. Muslim ways are for the benefit of men only. And by the way, i'm a man and i still see alot of Muslim traditions as being way too one sided.
Particularly in a welfare state system, you should care. Remember the guy a few years ago who had 20 wives, 67 kids and had a job paying him $50k/year? Who do you think was feeding those kids? Polygamy is as anti-male as it is anti-female. It hurts the young males the most (older males don't want competition from the hot young studs) so the mid-teen males are thrown out at far too young an age. It is anti-female because females do not have the same rights and privileges as a male. They can only be married 1 person. By the nature of polygamy, females are also subservient to males, so they do not have the same status in the system. Also, polygamy (because of a reduced gene pool) causes genetic birth defects. http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy417.html Again. Who do you think is paying for the bills for these kids? Yep. You and I.
Well if polygamy was suddenly legal I would hope that welfare would be thrown out the window in my country, which would indeed suck but if you had a household of 10 working adults you might not mind. I was actually being overly kind on the subject and using the definition of polygamy in which anyone has more than one spouse when indeed you are of course correct and it is usually polygyny (hopefully our "buddy" a few posts up is going to explain how this is somehow natural) a male dominated social group that behaves in the way you have described. In the case of Islamic states it is obviously not "just" polygamy and is a form of control and subjegation of women while allowing men to behave like animals. Same could be said for "old school" forms of Mormonism and IIRC they both believe women should not have jobs or be educated. Of course there are more liberal types of both of those religions now and many who do not believe in polygamy.
Nagging wives would be dealt with, in accordance with islam. I couldn't handle another wife. I just bought my wife a new car today. I'd go broke if I had anymore wives
Mammal Mating Systems * Monogamy is rare and is scattered across a wide variety of mammal groups. It occurs in some primates (e.g., gibbons) * In most mammals, the mating system is polygyny Primate Mating Systems * Monogamy – rare – occurs in some new-world primates and in gibbons * Polygyny – common- occurs in most monkeys and in orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos The Human Mating System Dr. John A. Byers Professor Ph.D. (1980) University of Colorado
You have been answered. Yes Polygyny is the default and natural state. Since you seem to be an atheist, the monkey example suffices for your kind. Had you been a theist I would have brought other evidence.
<-- not an atheist, and I would love to hear the other evidence. I need to practice my speech for the next two women I can talk into coming home with me and I don't think "monkeys do it" is going to work for me.
I am still reading through that insane wall of text but halfway down I am still under the impression that the bible is fairly ambivalent on the subject. Some bible references are for it and some against it according to the author of this essay?(not sure that is really what it is), others are merely statements in the bible and the text after it claiming that because so and so did it, it must be ok. Either way I am not an atheist but I am also not a follower of the big three (islamochristojudeoism). Just because Abraham had many sons does not mean it is ok and in fact I would say that Abraham and the ongoing wars of his tribes are a good reason not to poke too many holes...
Actually this guy is right, it is really a way apart of human evolution that ensures the human species never dies off or become extinct. I present two scenarios, both is based on if an comet hits earth tomorrow and 500 people are left. 1. There are 500 men and one woman 2. There are 500 women and one man Which scenario would ensure the human species to continue on? The second one of course. The first scenario you can only have one baby a year, the human species would die off. While with the second scenario, even though the man would be tired, you would have 500 babies a year. This also I believe explains why women lose the ability to bear children at a certain age, while men are able to have children for the rest of their lives. I just want add polygamy has actually been around the world since the dawn of the human race, and monogamy is something new brought on by religions like christianity and is actually still the minority globally around the world with marriage traditions. I'm not defending islam (as I don't like any religion) but I'm a realistic.