The Null Device

The Bush administration vetoes a UN declaration on children's rights, refusing to sign it unless provisions for sexual health services are removed, replaced with abstinence-based programmes. The US is supported by the Vatican in this (and possibly the Australian government as well). It is predicted that if the US gets its way, it will exacerbate the AIDS crisis in the third world, not to mention the other consequences of unwanted children being born. But hey, think of all the souls that will be saved...

There are 5 comments on "":

Posted by: Hobbes http:// Sun May 5 17:23:59 2002

Of course it is OK to force people to live in squalor and poverty since you are halping towards eternal salvation. Of course, since we know how God feels about poor people, we can't really expect they will make it into heaven anyway, but there is no need to compound that with sins like having sex. And God forbid that we should teach them about all their options and leave it to their concience to decide what to do. We all know that brown people have no morals, and can't be trusted with their own redemption.

Truth be told, the American left is not much better with its stance on guns. While I was under the impression that education was a good thing, a lot of people I am embarassed to call fellow leftists are working to block gun saftey education in schools under the premise that teaching kids gun safety will make them shoot people.

Posted by: Jimbob http://the-fix.org Mon May 6 01:41:15 2002

This offends me most because of the stupidity and lack of logic present. A bunch of people who are INCAPABLE OF THINKING RATIONALLY are going to cause a hell of a lot of harm. It's like the old "condom machines in school toilets" crap. Moralists say "oooh but if we provide the kids with condoms, they're going to go out and have sex!". How do people capable of making statements as silly as that manage to get into positions of power and influence. Kids are going to have sex anyway, if that's their inclination. It's not like making condoms available is going to make a guy say "ooh now that I've got a condom, I can go out and shag someone!" - they're going to shag them anyway, and giving them condoms to do it with is better for everyone. Sheesh!

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Mon May 6 05:43:52 2002

I think the problem comes from them believing all that Creationist nonsense myself. Biology tells you that people, like all other animals, have a natural tendency to want to have sex. However, if you believe that humankind was created in six days by God, then you can very well consider sex to be an immoral evil and childhood to be a legally enforced Garden of Eden.

So much evil in the world occurs from people wilfully ignoring the facts of biology and trying to impose their own ideals where they don't fit.

Posted by: Hobbes http:// Mon May 6 17:18:15 2002

Actually, as much as I hate the doctorine of original sin, I am going to have to back up the Garden of Eden story on this one. Our humanity is defined, at least in part, by our ability to conciously override our biological instincts because of a more important morality. We know the difference between good and evil and are capable of both.

I don't think premarital sex is wrong, but I respect the opinions of those who think otherwise. I just believe we should give everyone, even children, the right to make an informed decision on that for themselves when it becomes an issue

What is at stake here is something more fundamental (to me, at least) and the root of my dislike of the doctrine of original sin. I think education, whether about safe sex, gun safety, or Newton's second law, is a good thing. I think we should have more restrictive gun control and more liberal sex education, but GW thinks otherwise. Just because I am right and he is wrong doesn't mean I don't think we should teach kids how to be

Posted by: mitch http:// Tue May 7 10:06:17 2002

In their own words: <a href="http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/leo091101.asp">1</a> <a href="http://www.heritage.org/library/backgrounder/bg1407es.html">2</a>