re: #155 stabby

Apparently some believe that wasting sperm is the greatest sin, even if that happens not through masturbation but through having sex with a wife who is no longer fertile or even if she is pregnant.

Onan’s sin wasn’t wasting sperm, it was disobeying a direct order from his father Judah for Onan to fulfill his brother obligation to his Er. It was ancient Judaism’s way of saying that marriage is between a man, a woman and any widowed sisters in law he might have. The offense wasn’t sexual immorality per se, but a deliberate and selfishly motivated refusal to do one’s duty.