Human revelation This partly explains the changing fortunes of the institution of marriage. In the middle ages, marriage was considered a sacrament ordained by God, and God also authorised the father to marry his children according to his wishes and interests. An extramarital affair was accordingly a brazen rebellion against both divine and parental authority. It was a mortal sin, no matter what the lovers felt and thought about it. Today people marry for love, and it is their inner feeling that give value to this bond. Hence, if the very same feelings that once drove you into the arms of man now drive you into the arms of another, what's wrong with that? If an extramarital affair provides an out let for emotional and sexual desires that are not satisfied by your spouse of twenty years, and if your new lover is kind, passionate and sensitive to your needs - why not enjoy it? But wait a minute, you might say, we cannot ignore the feelings of the other concerned parties. The woman and her lover might feel wonderful in each other's arms, but if their respective spouses find out, everybody will probably feel awful for quite some time. And if it leads to divorce, their children might carry the emotional scars for decades. Even if the affair is never discovered, hiding it involves a lot of tension, and may lead to growing feelings of alienation and resentment. The most interesting discussion in humanist ethics concern situation like extramarital affairs, when human feelings collide. What happens when the same action causes one person to feel good, and another to feel bad? How do we weigh the feelings against each other? Do the good feelings of the two lovers out weigh the bad feelings of their spouse and children? It is far more important to understand the kind of arrangements both sides deploy. Modern people have different ideas about extramarital affairs, but no matter what their position is, they tend to justify it in the name of human feelings rather than in the name of holy scriptures and divine commandments. Humanism has taught us that something can be bad only if it is cause somebody to feel bad. Murder is wrong not because some god once said, "Thous shalt not kill' Rather, murder is wrong because it causes terrible suffering to the victim, to his family members, and to his friends and acquaintance.