On Polygamy

by Thomas Sim, 24 Mar, 2001

According to my limited reading, no teaching actually prohibits polygamy (As of 29May,2008 - this view of mine has changed! Christianity prohibits adultery and it is mentioned in Mark 10:7 to 12 that whoever divorce his wife and take another is committing adultery).

What is more astonishing is that some teachings or religion allow the practice of polygamy e.g. Islam. In all those books, polygamy was a common practice in the olden days. Even among other cultures e.g. Taoist or Buddhist in China, their leaders were polygamous in nature. Give me a nation, or a civilization that men were not polygamous!

Before I proceed, lets define 'polygamy'. It means 'having more than one wife at any one time'. Chewing this sentence, a challenging question to ask is : Were the books written on matters that men were the major stakeholders who wanted special rights to be enshrined in the memorandum of human constitution?

Or, are men created fundamentally polygamous in nature?

To me, there is no answer to the above question, although I prefer the latter. Just like the question of which God is the 'right' or 'true' God? Every teaching or religion professed its own Gods as ultimate God and their followers are willing to die for its righteousness. Here, lets not talk about religion. That is no allowed in this site.

Then, what is to discuss? Sadly said, the sickening and hypocrisy of man in denying the simple nature of man himself.

As we all know, men have a longer biological reproductive life span. A healthy man is reproductively active on attending adolescence until the moment he dies. Why is that so? Why necessary?

Biologically, man does not get pregnant. It is a limitation of man to carry a baby and as a consequence age and physical well-being is not important in determining reproductive capacity. On the other hand, just imagine a 70 years old woman pregnant! Such restriction is natural as child bearing is not an easy task. This could be a reason that women have menopausal stage in their lives.

Secondly, in desperate measures, like famine, disease, war or UFO invasion when human race faces the danger of extinction. When the chance of passing down the genetic traits is still possible, it would definitely be better that there is no limit as to age of men to pass down the genes to continue human civilization. This might sound absurd now but nevertheless it was very true then. During war, elderly men look after young women because all the young men had died in battle.

Thirdly and most importantly, men need arousal to perform the sexual chore. This is not necessary for women. A rape case cannot happen on man - so far, there is no law for that - I suppose! However, a rape on any reproductively active woman can yield an offspring.

So what has it to do with polygamy? Of course, it does. If men are meant to be monogamous, it will be difficult for he-the-only-man left on earth (his wife died) to sleep with another woman or women to propagate the human species. He would not be sexually attracted to another woman, and find hard to perform the duty a man should do only by himself and nobody else.

A reproductively active man should like (or crazy about) women, sexually. This is sadly the case, irrespective of age. I therefore respect the monks more than the nuns, if they are truly any.

Anyway, just imagine a time when men do not like women. Would you find that strange? Would that man pass on human civilization? Would this man practice polygamy? The obvious answer is NO!

Conversely, if the opposite is true that men by nature crazy about women, then there is the propagation of human species and thus civilization. The sad trade-back is polygamy. It sounds quite reasonable, right?

Therefore, it comes to the situation that man denies that 'gifted' polygamous nature at the expense of intellectual advancement over the thousand years of civilization. This might be the presentation, but not necessary the intended truth. Many women would find this writing offensive, but sadly again, it is quite true. And history has proven many. How many widow keep unmarried and how many widower got re-married?

Similarly, women's rights activists would claim that there are too much sexual abuses around in the office place. On the other hand, the sales of fashion and make-ups are over billions of dollars annually to satisfy the self-indulging needs of women themselves. That is why obesity is such a taboo in women and Xenical sells so well. Deep inside, every woman wants to be beautiful and sexually attractive to command a 'calling' among the men, or should I say the right man she wants as her prey.

It is an animal instinct in us, and yet we try to deny it. Why? Are we too ashamed to admit? Women's rights activists feel that the men should love their brain, not their body. However, in the basic nature of women, they want man to be mad about their body! Or else, why ...

Woman said: " What do you think of my new hair style, darling?"

Man replied without looking: "Is it?"

Then the woman shouted: "Stop reading that newspaper and look at me!"