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In Western Europe in the 1600s, being a virgin didn't make you a loser in most people's eyes like it does now.

Newton had long friendships with other leading intellectual figures (Edmund Halley, John Locke, mathematician David Gregory).

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Never being married did however.

There are essentially no married virgins, i.e., essentially all the virgins are unmarried, so it seems inconsistent to consider the unmarried as losers but not the virgins.

> There are essentially no married virgins,

Which is something I point out to JWs rude enough to interrupt my Sunday breakfast. Which of the following scenarios present as most likely:

1. A married couple, living together as a married couple, had never had sex, or

2. They had sex

It literally did not. Celibacy was much more common (or at least commonly aspired to) and was considered virtuous.

Only in prescribed folds. The average unmarried person was a relative outcast. Lifelong singleness was exceedingly rare. It went as far as having legal ramifications like not being able to own property and being unable to hold certain offices.

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