I believe that monogomy is more a sign of respect between two individials in a relationship, regardless of any religious beliefs or connotation. I have never once been unfaithful in any relationship, serious or not, because I have to first respect someone before entering into a relationship with them.

Well, I guess you're right, but down to the instinctive level, without any norms in society and labels applied to things like love, the amount of partners you have wouldn't really matter. That's more of what I was getting at.

On the other hand polygamy is similar in the fact that the love that you share with your partner you have to be committed and respectful of that person enough and also have a higher trust level than being in a monogamous relationship.

When you share your love with others most of the time it's on a physical level but the emotional level between the couple is just as strong if not even stronger than in a monogamous relationship.

on the physical level i understand, but the emotional one, i don't get it. i can't imagine a girl with 10 husbands without thinking she's a slut than having too much emotional love to share to these 10 men.

I see polygamy as a cop out, that's just my personal opinion. I'm a believer in soulmates and true love and all that jazz, so take that for whatever it's worth to you. I've had girlfriends cheat on me, and none of them used the reasoning that they respected me enough that they believed we had a high enough level of trust to where having sex with other people would not be an issue.

Yes, because those girlfriends that you have had cheated on you while you were in a monogamous relationship.

People in polygamous relationships believe in soulmates as well they are trusting of their partner enough to have an open relationship where they can get physical relief from others.

I don't see big deal with it personally and I'd love to be in a relationship like that one day but so far no dice.

Open relationships aren't open if only one partner thinks it's okay and the other thinks they are in a monogamous relationship.

I'm simply unable to see polygamy as anything other than disrespectful, as the result of living very close to a community of fundamentalist LDS polygamists, whose church doctrine violates a number of our country's laws and human rights.

I suppose I could accept that (theoretically) it could function between fully-informed, consenting adults, however, I see envy making it impossible to succeed. Humans are instinctively programmed to place their needs and survival and those of their offspring before any other, and as such, sharing partners willfully is not in our nature.

EDIT: Deej, your definition of polygamy isn't actually polygamy, it's just an open relationship. Polygamy, in terms of relationships, specifically relates to the marital relationship of multiple individuals, it's not about sex.

i agree so much on this one.

Ah yes, i'm blurring the lines between open relationships and polygamy.

I should easily recognize the difference seeing that I have watched all seasons of Big Love.

I feel like polygamy could work though depending on specific individuals, I don't see it becoming the normal way things work because as you said envy and jealousy may get in the way for people with low self esteems but there are people that are able to be above those feelings and it wouldn't be an issue

What the fuck is wrong with you? You could have said "hmmm, well I didn't know that", but instead you choose to be a pompous ass.