Boilermaker Rick wrote:
Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
What is your basis for judging what's "right"?
I believe there is an age where someone is still too young to consent and/or make qualified decisions such as these. I think you do too unless you think a 4 year old has the same type of decision making as a 29 year old. So, I am going to assume you agree on that.
It is then up to society to set an appropriate age for such decisions to be legal by both parties. Admittedly, there is no magic number with almost any age related law. In general, 18 has been that age, with some leeway for those who are within a few years of age of an 18 year old. We could make it 25 and we could make it 14 and it would have just as many if not many more flaws than 18(or whatever close to 18 age we have chosen.
It's then up to the adults to behave to those societal norms even if they are imperfect. If they don't like them, then work towards changing them or be willing to accept the consequences for going against them. I know that people don't like slippery slope arguments, but you are making an argument where ANY age of consent would be impossible to judge and that opens up a massive slippery slope where we basically treat all humans, from birth to death, as the exact same.
Obviously there is a general age where what you say is true. We're not talking about four year olds here. Certainly a fifty year old is generally more mature than a thirty year old. I'm sure good dolphin has spun some young lawyers in circles, but we don't stop the young guy from practicing. You have to learn some where and at some age. I'm not advocating for the age of consent to be ten or making an argument in that regard at all. I'm just pointing out that these social mores are based in religious belief far more than most people want to admit. I'm as militant an atheist as anyone this side of leash, but if I'm being honest I have to admit that our morals are steeped in religious influences. These beliefs aren't just inside us. We're just animals. We haven't "evolved" beyond being animals. We've simply set limits for ourselves. That's called civilization. Some of us may draw the line at wearing pajamas on an airplane. I'm sure you've noticed, I'm not a cultural relativist.
It reminds me of a video I saw yesterday wherein some protest leader on some campus was being asked about shutting down free speech. He said that some speech needs to be shut down and the interviewer asked him about the Constitution. This punk said that it was an "irrelevant document". What he doesn't seem to realize is that the Constitution is the only thing stopping me (an animal) from stomping the living shit out of him.