jj@alice.UUCP (09/23/85)
Frankly, I find both sides of this "should Planned Parenthood
give Moral ADVICE" debate stupid. It seems to me that pre-marital
sex, adolescent sex, etc, are all easily lumpable under the heading
of "wisdom", i.e. is it WISE to behave in a given manner?
While I'd think it was absolutely idiotic to say to
a kid that "it's immoral to have premarital sex,
even if you don't believe in my God and teachings,
because I say so", I think it's entirely reasonable to
say "I think it's UNWISE, unless you consider the following: ..."
if the following include health, happiness, understanding of
consequences, the effects of sexual conduct on emotional
matters, and the like. (I'm NOT talking about scare tales,
folks, just about a two-way discussion concerning the effects
of sex on a relationship.)
Why is it that both the 'liberal' element and the
'religious' element insist on making morality of
what is a simple question of wisdom?
Yours for free choice, without {deliberately imposed guilt,
harrassment, or enforcement of 'christian' moral codes upon
unbelievers}.
--
SUPPORT SECULAR TEDDY-BEAR-ISM.
"All the money that e'er I spent, I spent it in good company..."
(ihnp4/allegra)!alice!jjal@ames.UUCP (Al Globus) (10/08/85)
> Frankly, I find both sides of this "should Planned Parenthood > give Moral ADVICE" debate stupid. It seems to me that pre-marital > sex, adolescent sex, etc, are all easily lumpable under the heading > of "wisdom", i.e. is it WISE to behave in a given manner? > > While I'd think it was absolutely idiotic to say to > a kid that "it's immoral to have premarital sex, > even if you don't believe in my God and teachings, > because I say so", I suspect that morality was developed (a long time ago) to keep society from being wiped out by venereal disease. Think about it. Any society with venereal disease that didn't limit sexual contact somehow would eventually sterilize all the females and disappear. Monogamy is reasonable and successful approach to the problem. Note that societies such as Polonesia that had no venereal disease (before the white man came) were very promiscuous with no serious problems. When syphlis and gonorea were conquered by drugs and the pill came out, we thought free sex was great, and it was. The hidden problem arose when herpes and AIDS got into the picture. Basically, sex is a great way to spread disease.
todd@scirtp.UUCP (Todd Jones) (10/14/85)
> I suspect that morality was developed (a long time ago) to keep society > from being wiped out by venereal disease. Think about it. Any society > with venereal disease that didn't limit sexual contact somehow would > eventually sterilize all the females and disappear. Monogamy is > reasonable and successful approach to the problem. Note that societies > such as Polonesia that had no venereal disease (before the white man > came) were very promiscuous with no serious problems. When syphlis and > gonorea were conquered by drugs and the pill came out, we thought free > sex was great, and it was. The hidden problem arose when herpes and > AIDS got into the picture. Basically, sex is a great way to spread > disease. The problem is the lingering presence of puritanical beliefs that address the issue by creating taboos and fears around sex. These beliefs often corelate sex with evil and create more curiosity for young people than caution. When youngsters (boy, do I sound old!) realize they can have sex without the devil branding them for life, they tend to shrug off all words of authority. If we are more open, honest and candid with our pubescent children (and with ourselves), we will probably see an improvement in mature sexual attitudes. (NOTE: mature sexual attitudes are not 1) fear of sex 2) rampant promiscuity. sez me.) -todd jones