On the positive side of this issue - people bond through sex. There is no better bond in marriage than sexual intercourse for the first time, for both husband and wife, after marriage.
My pet theory is that people get imprinted by their first sexual experiences. That is why boys molested by men turn into men who molest boys. That is also why two people still thrill each other after decades of marriage, because they learned about sex and love from each other.
The religious aspect is always neglected today because we are an anti-religious society. When God is taken out of the equation, any aperture will do. The Supreme Court has taken government out of morality, too.
Pre-marital chastity would eliminate illegitimate births and STDs from our population. Abortion would be eliminated almost completely. That would take more leadership than this country has to offer.
"Love is primarily in the will, not in the emotions or the glands. The will is like the voice; the emotions are like the echo. The pleasure associated with love, or what is today called "sex," is the frosting on the cake; its purpose is to make us love the cake, not ignore it. The greatest illusion of lovers is to believe that the intensity of their sexual attraction is the guarantee of the perpetuity of their love.
"It is because of this failure to distinguish between the glandular and spiritual--or between sex which we have in common with animals, and love which we have in common with God--that marriages are so full of deception."
You can read more of this wonderful book here online:http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARRIAGE/3GETMARR.TXT