As for sex outside of marriage, maybe it is sinful, but I have never thought of consensual sex as more than a minor sin - and I think of minor sins as "opportunities for learning" that don't quite fit the ideal we ought to live up to.

I'm just wondering how this somewhat Christian-centric view of "consensual sex as [no] more than a minor sin" outside marriage sits with all those people who don't care for marriage and those societies in which there is a more flexible attitude to monogamy. Marriage is a purely human invention. The organs providing sexual pleasure developed via natural selection. It should be clear to all that natural selection did not specify that sexual pleasure was turned on like a switch by a ceremony. You're making "outside marriage" the pivot point when it should be the word "consensual".

Don't you think it's high time we stopped seeing "sex 'n' morals" as irrevocably joined at the hip?

Incidentally, I see "consensual" as meaning quite a bit more than "not rape". I see it as free from exploitation and ignorance (and a bit more still).