The merits of the argument I advanced at the outset should be completely independent of your opinion of Jews or Judaism. However, because Christianity (and American Christian culture) has long equated virginity with holiness, while Judaism equates marriage with holiness, obviously there is going to be some cultural baggage that people bring to that discussion. Nothing in this argument requires reference to scripture or to religious belief however. The question is simply (more or less), what is the relationship between sex and abstinence and the well lived life? To those who say "wait until marriage" I have said... "don't let those marriages wait too long." I've advanced the idea that the distortions of the human personality that result from waiting are roughly as bad as the balance of good and bad that comes from not waiting to marriage... and that the best way to avoid both of those problems is to marry early. That is the cultural strategy followed by many groups... Hassidic Jews, but also Amish folk and many others. Curious that the more educated people get, the further they get from that strategy, forcing themselves into the undesirable situation of either (1) prolonged virginity or (2) multiple partners with attendant risk to the body and soul. Sure early marriage can be bad too... but in traditional societies those dangers are mitigated by social support.