Rob513264, good point. It got me thinking about BD's argument that the bible while not forbidding polygamy (most of the major players seemed to prefer it) does show some unhappy situations.

I thought about the sibling relationships in the bible.
- The sweet story of Cain and Able.
- The amazing affection of Ham, Shem and Jepeth
- That ever so inspirational story of Isaac and Ishmael
- Jacob and Esau and their determination to stick by each other dispite all odds.
- The wonderful brotherly affection shown by Amnon to his sister Tamar

I could go on but those familiar with the stories should get the picture by now, for the rest Google might help. If we use BD's logic we should ban multiple kids, it just seems to be a recipe for murder and misery.

R0bert

Quite hilarious to see Boaz taking Irfan's bait - hook, line and sinker. More worrisome is this:

"Its as plain as dogs balls on a grasshopper that a man over 50 with existing wives and who marries again to a 9 or 15 or 18 yrs old, is going to be more sexually interested in HER than in the 'old wrinklies'"

Boaz's assumption that a 9 year old is obviously more sexually "interesting" than a grown woman speaks volumes. A Freudian slip, perhaps?

Rob.. parental love is by nature equal... it is not INTIMATE or sexual.
If you think you can equally love from the depths of your soul 2 women, then go for it. But I somehow thing the women may have 'reservations' about it.
Can you imagine.. u goto bed with wife one.. "Sweety..I love you sooo much.. with ALL my heart" at which point her eyes roll and she silently mouths "yeah..right". Then he goes to wife 2.... same speech. C'mon mate.. get real.

Perhaps that criticism reveals something about your understanding of love and intimacy and the marriage union ?

C.J. trust u :) perhaps the slip was yours ?

There is a section in the old testament, where king david was on his death bed. The royal court went and searched for the 'hottest cutest virgin' they could find, and promptly sent her into the kings bed.
The hope was to revive his interest in life. I think she was in this case 16. The underlying premise of course is that old men appreciate young girls. Get it ? But you are above such things right ?

BD, "parental love is by nature equal" - I think that there is plenty of evidence of parents finding that's not really the case. Some manage it well enough for any inequality not to show either to themselves or others and others don't manage it.

Any thoughts on the unhappyness of sibling relationships in the bible?

The thing about King David might just be showing that your god has a soft spot for old men with a thing for young girls. David was a man after his own heart.

I've already said elsewhere that I think polygamous relationships would be very difficult but then so are monogamous relationships. If consenting adults want to have them the only role society should have is in ensuring that children from such relationships have at least the same protections as other children. The rest is vouerism.

R0bert

Polygamy isn't always just for the benefit of the man. It is not uncommon in cultures that support it for women to ask their husbands to marry a friend or sister of theirs.

Can you imagine the husband sitting on the couch watching the sport while the two women chat, share housework and childminding with both saying "not tonight dear--can't you go and pester your other wife?"

Given that most women have not been able to get the man to be much help round the house and with the kids and then they are supposed to work at an outside job that earns as much as he does, a second wife might be just the trick. But hang on, then again, maybe then the women will work out they don't need the man anyway ;)

Aziliz, I was thinking another guy round the house might be useful for similar reasons.

Someone else to help with the work that needs doing. Might be easier to just make sure future partners are the type who do their fair share. It'd be a bummer to have a spouse bring in a new partner who just created more work for whoever was already doing it.

R0bert