BigJ,
It is my hope, that the slippery slope to pedophilia, is averted. But there is no prancing around the truth of my statement. Albeit rather extreme, a more milder, acceptable form is no doubt around the corner.
For instance, many third world countries will not prosecute those who practice pedophillia, such as South Africa. Recent cases there show that judges are more then willing to through out those cases because there is a very strong believe that you can not get aids, or even cure it, if you have sex with children. There is a case (I am sorry, I can't find the link right now, but I have posted it to this board over a year ago) where by a gang of some 16 men raped a 3 year old girl and the judge threw out the case. It wasn't thrown out because it was an abomination, rather, because of the very heavy set belief that you can not get aids this way.
And although I understand completely, that is a third world country we are talking about. In Canada, my foresaken home country, there is pressure to decrease the age of sexual consent from 14 to 12. If this were to happen, why stop at 12, how about 10? 8? 6? or 3? Why not at any age? Who is stop it? And to make matters worse, the group putting pressure on the Canadian government to push through the same sex marriage bills is the same group pushing for a reduced age consent and a bunch of other crud.
They have been doing this for about 20 years, maybe more. But, I haven't been into Canadian politics for even that long. Now 20 years ago people were say, oh no, it will never happen in regards to the gay marriage issue. Now those same people are saying bring it on, its only fair and equitable. Who nows, the same people saying "hey no, to pedophilia" today, may well be the champions of that cause in 20 years.
I do believe that society as whole has rejected the authority behind the moral standards of the bible. Sure, it can be said that if all were taught good morals, and lived by such, our society would be much better. But in that society, the definition of what is morally acceptable would have to be decided upon. Certainly, all can agree that stealing is wrong and aught not be allowed. If we are a freak of nature (and by definition of evolution, we are nothing more than a random roll of the perferbial die, hence a simple freak of nature), we should logically look back to that nature from whence we came and determine what it considers morally acceptable. In said nature, we find all kinds of stealing going on. It is survival of the fittest and if you can not fight for your food, mate or claim to land and subsequently suceed in that battle, then you shall starve, not get your seed into the next generation or have no place to live.
So, is stealling morally wrong in nature? Appearantly not. So, then how does our community determine what will be morally acceptable? And here we now have quite a conundrum.
Can we as humans, evolved from a common ancestory with other animals found in the enviroment, have also created a moral fabric of what is right and what is wrong?
I think it is not possible, and quite inconceivable to have done so. If survival of the fittest is the driving force behind our evolution, right down to our molecular and DNA level, then our outward actions would also align themselves to survival of the fittest. Stealing and murder would be quite acceptable.
Somehow I am digressing. grrr. Excuse me please, but I digress only to make a point. And that point is, that if we accept that God is the authority behind the moral fabric of our society and that God has laid out, in absolute terms, what is right and what is wrong, then we certainly can explain why we see items such as stealing and murder as wrong.
But, if we reject God, and\or Gods authority behind the absolute morality in the Bible, then what is the expected result? I say we should expect relative morality based on how we feel. A mentallity of "so long as their actions don't affect me, then it is okay" leads to complacency. Complacency on trivial matters leads to complacency on matters that are much more significant.
I know in Canada, the whole gay marriage movement really started with a simple request to be voluntarily acknowledged by governments. They received it. Soon, gay pride parades poped up through out Canada. And when a mayor of a city said "No" to having a parade, the movement demanded legislated achnowledgement. They received it, it was only fair after all. Just because Calgary doesn't have a hetro pride parade, I guess that means gays require more recognition. That lead to the government giving homosexual common law unions equal tax treatement. Its only fair, they do after all meet the Canadian requirement in that they have cohabitated for 6 months together. (Watch out roommates in college, you might be deemed homosexual in accordance with the income tax act.) And now, well, the gay rights movement has special days, equal tax status, legislated recognitions, the next step, logically, and really, its not that big of a step when you think about it, is the right to be lawfully married.
And remember, at least in Canada (I honestly do not know about how it is in the USA), the people pushing for small victories in the gay marriage, which is now on the verge of seeing its true agenda come to fullfillment, are the same people pushing to lower the sexual consent age.
Like I said earlier, small victorys, 12 today, 10 tommorrow, 8 isn't that big of a step is it? Hey, children under 5 don't have reasoning skills yet, why should they be protected under a law they don't understand? Although, I would love to continue to ramble, let me leave you with this. The governments and courts are succeeding, with small victories, in removing the parents right to bring up their own children as they sit fit.
I have been in a struggle with my sons school over my right to raise my child without their interference. Without getting into details, I see first hand how fast the institutions that were set up to protect our rights are quickly destroying them to serve some sick, unknown purpose, I am sure.
God Bless you all, especially if you actually read this far and understood it.
!!!Peace out!!!!
