For thousands of years the "sinfulness" of non-marital sex helped to minimize single-parent households in sucessful societies all over the globe. Even if the "sinfulness" isn't real, there are still detrimental outcomes that we haven't come up with an alternative method to minimize.
I appreciate the post, but I think you're giving ancient societies WAAAYYYYYY too much credit here. Like absurdly too much.
First of all, prior to 100-150 years ago, women didn't decide anything. About anything. Ever.
Men decided if they were going to be a couple or not. And men, in this specific example, had no accountability, either. The woman was saddled with the pregnancy. If they both survived, the woman was saddled with the child. And as a single mother, the woman was literally shunned and cast out of the family/village.
Now, you could be suggesting that the culture came up with the witch in the forest religious story of judgement to dissuade both sides from producing this result, but there's a problem there.......men want to fuck and everyone knows we want to and will.
Insert the gender divide in islam to this day.
No one wants to shun their daughter or sister or whoever. But that single mother may have begged and pleaded to be part of a couple. She may have been duped beforehand by the unethical man. She may be great until opening her mouth to talk and driven him away. But none of that matters. Thee man does and always has dictated whether or not a coupling occurred. He may act aloof and drive her away, or lazy, aggressive, or may just move along and his infidelity would do it. But it's his actions/inactions whether intentional or not that dictate the coupling.
Second, human history didn't exactly live in a single-family home. Family groups grew into villages, and everyone was family or like family, so a single mother's child was raised by a group. It was less of a problem back then. This is mostly a last-50-years-American problem. A luxury of a problem, if you will.
Everywhere else, they just go with it. Whether it's sad, unfortunate, or banal, no matter. They just move on about their lives. That's all they can do. But they're not basically required to have a full-time job to pay for an extra mouth to feed AND child care, when a tiny apartment costs 50% plus of her income. At least back in the 80s, she could afford it. No longer.
And if religion is strictly just some lesson to be learned, the lesson can be taught without the avalanche of baggage that comes with a god.
It's 2023.
This 2000 year old ball-and-chain needs to be released. ALL of its positives can be recreated without ANY of its minuses.
