Palin's Daughter Says Abstinence Not Realistic

[Final-Fan]

mrstickball said:

akuma587 said:
You are assuming that sex is an inherently bad thing and that it is inherently good to be abstinent and that anyone who doesn't follow that is a whore.

You can argue that almost anything is possible. How is that a good argument for saying abstinence is an effective policy? That's like saying Prohibition was a good idea because it is possible for people to not drink alcohol. The reasoning is weak at best.

This isn't the 1950's. Not to mention over 15% (and growing) of the country is atheist or agnostic. So why is a Judeo-Christian moral code appropriate for everyone? Why is providing children with information and allowing them to make an informed choice a bad thing?

Concerning prohibition, you really aren't arguing if the root issue of the prohibition - if drinking was actually bad - is indeed bad.

Is drinking bad? Is divorce bad? Is smoking bad? Is robbery bad?

If Judeo-Christian moral code isn't appropriate for everyone, then what is the atheist/agnostic code of conduct, and how does it effect the other side of the fence?

I never said educating kids with good information is wrong. I merely said abstenence is right. A balanced approach does include proper information about safe sex, but also includes information about the benefits of abstenence as well.

In the case of sex, I'd liken it to drinking. There's a right and wrong way to do it. The argument your trying to make is that those of the pro-abstenence belief think that all sex is wrong. It's not. We argue that the right way to sex is inside of a stable, married, relationship. And the statistics show that abstenence until marriage has an effect on divorce, among other hazards.

Also, you never answered my question about sex and relationships.

Interesting that you should bring up prohibition. 

Let's suppose for the moment, for the sake of argument, abstinence is indeed a shining example of all that's good and right in the world. 

What was the problem with prohibition?  The fact that it did NOT solve the problem (drinking) while at the same time it created other problems like huge growth of organized crime and general disregard for the law. 

Similarly, strongly abstinence-focused education does NOT solve the problem of premarital sex, while at the same time it makes kids less knowledgeable about how to practise safe sex and the realistic risks involved, thereby increasing STDs, pregnancy, etc.  ("Reefer madness" style propaganda is counterproductive IMO because kids are not retards.  Being taught blatantly stupid information only makes them disregard it, and they're likely to disregard other, more sensible warnings.) 

You may have a more reasonable approach in mind but in that case you should not be supporting the current form of abstinence education.