Why is virginity so higly prized in religion?

[Ori]

Is it because it's an emblem of innocence?
I don't fully understand.

 

[Scott1]

I can't speak for other religions.... but:

Christ is the center of all Christian life. The bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social. From the very beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the Bridegroom who is coming. Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this way of life, of which he remains the model.

 

[Valjean]

Is it an abrahamic artifact? The abrahamic religions strike me as more obsessed by it than others.

It's an interesting question. There's probably a considerable anthropological corpus on this.

 

[ch'ang]

Because sex is looked down upon by religion except if your married

 

[johnnys4life]

Denying the physical world in favor of the spiritual world. Giving into physical desire is considered spiritually weak. Even marrying really in my religion is partly as an allotment BECAUSE we are weak. That's where the whole 'better to marry than to burn" thing comes from.

That's not to say that marriage is wrong or sex isn't important, it is, just that there is a higher love. It's all a mystery.

I'm glad I married, though. I'm weak.