Wozza:
And I know what the male reproductive system is for. It’s biological purpose is to get as many women pregnant as possible. A man restricting himself to one woman is not natural. It may be culturally and religiously required (and my wife is pretty keen on it as well) but it sure ain’t a natural condition.
Are you sure that that is true of humans? It must be very difficult to say with certainty, as our self-consciousness, social organization, and ability to communicate are unique in the animal kingdom. While it is true that in many species a male does attempt to impregnate as many females as possible (and in some instances kills the offspring of those females resulting from impregnation by other males), this is not true of all species. This, as you may know, is called polygynous mating. Among our closest primate relatives, this mating system is seen in gorillas. Our somewhat more distant relatives, the gibbons, on the other hand, mate somewhat like humans: they are normally monogamous, but will occasionally breed outside of an established pair. In the case of humans, we typically feel a strong emotional bond with another human with whom we choose to mate, and have feelings of loyalty to that partner that would normally exclude mating with other partners. Humans are also a species in which it is normal for the male to experience a lifelong bond with his offspring and to wish to play a role in raising his young. As I stated earlier, it is suggested that this is one reason why humans normally continue to have sex during pregnancy. We may have evolved to do this to reduce the risk of the male mating with other females while his partner is pregnant. It is also worth noting that where polygyny does occur in humans it is normally quite closely regulated. E.g. in Islam a man may have up to four wives, but there are further restrictions such as a requirement to treat all wives equally or to obtain consent from existing wives. So even in these instances humans are differentiated from gorillas.
