What's your idea of God? Some cookie monster, perched somewhere up in cotton-candy land, watchful and ready to pounce? A loving daddy, humorous, peering down at you right now with a mischievious grin curling from the corners of his mouth, playful, yet caring always looking out for your best.

So often being tuned into the everyday Hollywood heyday of 007 heroic hunks and heart-throbbing honeys we wonder why the man upstairs always sees the desirable duet simply as a bunch of flagitious fornicators.

Is God the pouncing cookie monster when he says that sex is strictly for marriage, or is he the loving, caring father, who knows that lovemaking is only satisfying when the lovers have a commitment of marriage.

Don't let me try persuade you. Look at the facts to see that our caring daddy always knows best!

Did you know?

• Females who have slept with three or more people over a lifetime are 15 times more likely to get cervical cancer.

• Couples who have sex before marriage are more likely to get divorced. According to a study by the National Survey of Family Growth, women who have the kind of sexual experience Hax advocates — the premarital kind — increase their odds of divorce by about 60 percent. McManus, a counsellor points out that it is, "secular evidence for St. Paul’s injunction, "flee fornication."

• The more promiscuous you are before marriage, the more likely you are to commit adultery AFTER marriage.

• If you live together before marriage, you are more unlikely to marry that person. Columbia University found that "only 26 percent of women surveyed and a scant 19 percent of men" married the person they were living with. Another study showed that even if they do marry, couples who begin their marriages through cohabitation are almost twice as likely to divorce within 10 years compared to all first marriages: 57 percent to 80 percent.

• Found that 'perfect person'? Don't be fooled! People who have sex before marriage run a risk of marrying someone who is not right for them. Sexual intimacy can be emotionally blinding and it makes couples feel closer than they really are. One counsellor put it perfectly by saying, "Real love can stand the test of time without physical intimacy." The sexually active lose objectivity."

• That who try it outside of marriage often suffer guilt and fear due to the dangers of STDs or unwanted pregnancy. Feelings of guilt can lead to frigidity and impotence."

• Perhaps not so remarkably, it is those who stay pure and marry who enjoy sex most: The Family Research Council surveyed 1,100 people about their sexual satisfaction. In a Washington Post op-ed, FRC’s William Mattox, Jr. took a look at the inspiring results. It was "found that 72 percent of all married ‘traditionalists (those who believe that sex outside of marriage is wrong) report high sexual satisfaction. This is," Mattox explained, "roughly 31 percentage points higher than the level registered by unmarried ‘non-traditionalists’ (people who have no or only some objection to sex outside of marriage) and 13 percentage points higher than that registered by married non-traditionalists."

Well, what do you reckon? Don't you think that the God who designed each gene in our body ought to know whats best for us?

Most of the facts and some of the comments were taken from and article, the best of sex by Anne Morse, managing editor of breakpoint radio