A man's bond to his children is heavily dependent on whether he is still in a relationship with the mother, writes Pope Noe. Men have the capacity to father, but also the capacity to stray, so all successful societies have imposed social sanctions on men to encourage their fathering behavior. Up until the mid-20th century, marriage was held to be a sacred contract between a man and woman that was only broken in the most extreme of situations. Today many people avoid marriage, and of those who do marry, divorce is the statistical norm.