Editing Sexual abstinence (section)

==History==
{{More citations needed section|date=March 2017}}

The ancient world discouraged [[promiscuity]] for both health and social reasons.<ref name=Uta>{{cite book |title=Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven - the Catholic Church and Sexuality|author=Uta Ranke.Heinman|publisher=Penguin Books USA|year=1988|isbn=0-385-26527-1}}</ref> According to [[Pythagoras]] (6th century BCE), [[Having sex|sex]] should be practiced in the winter, but not the summer, but was harmful to male health in every season because the loss of [[semen]] was dangerous, hard to control, and both physically and spiritually exhausting, but had no effect on females.<ref name="Uta" /> This idea may have been merged with [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] ideas of [[good and evil]] in a philosophy known as [[Gnosticism]], which influenced [[Christianity|Christian]] and [[Mariwan Halabjaee|Islamic]] attitudes to sexual activity.<ref name="Uta" /> But others stated that the Christian religion's hold on to the ideal of sexual [[abstinence]] prior to the appearing of gnosticism and Zoroastrianism and its roots are to be found in the Old Testament (which is the base of the New Testament) in which  virginity was required by law and marriage was especially protected (see Deuteronomy chapter 22).

Throughout history, and especially prior to the 20th century, there have been those who have held that sexual abstinence confers numerous health benefits. For males, lack of abstinence was thought to cause a reduction of [[vitality]]. In modern times, the argument has been phrased in biological terms, claiming that loss of [[semen]] through ejaculation results in a depletion of vital nutrients such as [[lecithin]] and [[phosphorus]], which are also found at high levels in the [[Human brain|brain]]. Conservation of the semen allegedly allows it to be reabsorbed back into the bloodstream and aid in the healthy development of the body.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Yoshida|first=M.|date=2000-07-02|title=Conservation of sperms: current status and new trends|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10844206/|journal=Animal Reproduction Science|volume=60-61|pages=349–355|doi=10.1016/s0378-4320(00)00125-1|issn=0378-4320|pmid=10844206}}</ref> Along these lines, the noted German philosopher [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] spoke of the positive physiological effects of abstinence: "The reabsorption of semen by the blood ... perhaps prompts the stimulus of power, the unrest of all forces towards the overcoming of resistances ... The feeling of power has so far mounted highest in abstinent priests and hermits" (quoted by Walter Kaufman in his classic, ''[[Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist]]'', p.&nbsp;222). Before the "[[sexual revolution]]" of the 1960s, it was commonly believed by members of the medical profession that numerous mental and physical diseases in men were caused primarily by loss of [[nutrient]]s through seminal discharge, and that the deliberate conservation of this substance would lead to increased health, vitality, and intellectual prowess. This also applied to masturbation, which was also thought to lead to [[bedwetting]] and [[Hairy palms and soles|hairy palms.]]

Some advantages in favor of sexual [[abstinence]] were also claimed by [[Walter Siegmeister]], better known as Dr. Raymond W. Bernard, an early 20th-century American alternative health, esoteric writer, author and mystic, who formed part of the alternative reality subculture. In his essay entitled "Science discovers the physiological value of continence" (1957) he states:<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20100818043434/http://ktk.ru/~cm/contin.htm Science discovers the physiological value of continence]"</ref>

<blockquote>[I]t is clear that there is an important internal [[physiology|physiological]] relation between the secretions of the sex [[gland]]s and the [[central nervous system]], that the loss of these secretions, voluntarily or involuntarily, exercises a detrimental effect on the nutrition and vitality of the nerves and brain, while, on the other hand, the conservation of these secretions has a vitalizing effect on the nervous system, a regenerating effect on the [[endocrine glands]] [,] and a rejuvenating effect on the organism as a whole.</blockquote>

Historically, there has been a swing from the [[Libertine|sexually liberal]] end of the [[Industrial Revolution]] to the chaste values of the early [[Victorian morality|Victorian]] period.{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}} This was then followed by a new [[Religious fanaticism|puritanism]] from the late Victorian era to the mid-1900s.{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}} This important transformation often colors discussion of sexual behavior in the later 20th century. [[World War I]] began a return to sexual freedom and indulgence, but more often than not, the appearance of conforming to the earlier moral values of [[abstinence]] before marriage was retained.{{Citation needed|date=November 2013}} With the conclusion of [[World War II]], the societal importance of abstinence declined.{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}} The advent of the first [[Combined oral contraceptive pill|oral contraceptive pill]] and widely available [[antibiotics]] suppressed many consequences of wide and free sexual behavior,{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}} while social morals were also changing. By the 1970s, abandonment of premarital [[chastity]] was no longer taboo in the majority of western societies, and the reverse became true.{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}} Some cultural groups continued to place a value on the moral purity of an abstainer, but abstinence was caught up in a wider reevaluation of [[moral values]].

During the early 20th century, prominent [[feminist]] and [[birth control]] advocate [[Margaret Sanger]] argued that abstinence from sexual activity led to greater endurance and strength, and was a sign of the best of the species:

<blockquote>Though sex cells are placed in a part of the anatomy for the essential purpose of easily expelling them into the female for the purpose of reproduction, there are other elements in the sexual fluid which are the essence of blood, nerve, brain, and muscle. When redirected into the building and strengthening of these, we find men or women of the greatest endurance and greatest magnetic power. A girl can waste her creative powers by brooding over a love affair to the extent of exhausting her system, with the results not unlike the effects of masturbation and debauchery.<ref name="Sanger">{{Citation | url = http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/webedition/app/documents/show.php?sangerDoc=304923.xml | title = What Every Girl Should Know: Sexual Impulses — Part II | first = Margaret | last = Sanger | date = 29 December 1912 | access-date = 6 November 2013}}</ref></blockquote>

[[J. D. Unwin]] was a British ethnologist and social anthropologist at [[Oxford University|Oxford]] and [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]] universities. Unwin wrote several books including ''Sex and Culture'' (1934). In ''Sex and Culture'' Unwin studied 80 tribes and six known civilizations through 5,000 years of history and found a positive correlation between the cultural achievement of a people and the amount of sexual restraint which they observed. The author finds that the most culturally successful groups always exhibit lifelong monogamous relationships which include sexual [[abstinence]] outside of marriage.<ref>"Any human society is free to choose either to display great energy or to enjoy sexual freedom; the evidence is that it cannot do both for more than one generation." Unwin, J. D. (1934). ''Sex and Culture'', p. 412.</ref> According to Unwin, after a nation becomes prosperous it becomes increasingly liberal with regard to sexual morality and as a result loses its cohesion, its impetus and its purpose, ultimately having a negative effect on society: "The whole of human history does not contain a single instance of a group becoming civilized unless it has been absolutely monogamous, nor is there any example of a group retaining its culture after it has adopted less rigorous customs."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Unwin | first1 = J. D. | year = 1927 | title = Monogamy as a Condition of Social Energy | journal = The Hibbert Journal | volume = XXV | page = 662 }}</ref>