(September 10, 2015 at 4:05 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote:(September 10, 2015 at 11:53 am)Pyrrho Wrote: That still does not really explain it. I was taught the concept of "the World versus Christians" also. My mother did not tightly control the TV we watched, but she did control it some. Of course, TV was pretty tame the many years ago when I was young, but she still would not let us watch whatever we wanted.
As for the church's teachings, what church teaches sex education? They often tell you not to have sex before marriage, and not to have homosexual sex ever, but they do not usually teach about venereal diseases and so forth. Did yours? My mother had no objection to me learning about all of the diseases and how one could get them. And about the fact that sex can lead to pregnancy, and she did not want me to believe any of the nonsense that I was shocked to learn other people believed (e.g., "you can't get pregnant the first time you have sex" and other such ridiculous drivel; I was amazed to learn from my sex ed class in school that people actually believed that).
Did your mother want you to be unaware of the venereal diseases that you could get having sex? Did she want you to believe nonsense, like that you cannot get a girl pregnant the first time you have sex? Or did she teach you these things herself?
Actually, my mother did teach me about it, when I was ten. At least, to a degree. She read through a book from Focus on the Family that explained about Godly marriage, etc., and the various issues from a "Christian perspective". She skipped the 2/3rds of a page in which the author actually describes how sex works, but she did give me the book to read again for myself. Since I had gotten a full set of encyclopedias for my 8th birthday, which came two per month for a year, I already knew the mechanics of it. Nevertheless, I found out a year after getting the FotF book, when I went to the library to read real books about human sexuality, that not much had been included in my religious guide to the subject, other than a lot of moralizing and "traditional values" stuff.
That makes it even more puzzling. She wanted you to know a bit about sex (and at 10, she likely was not waiting until after you were having sex, so good for her on that), but she did not want the school teaching you about sex. I do not understand why she had a problem with the school teaching you about it.
I certainly understand that there are people who do not want their children to be taught about sex at school, but I have never understood why.
Looking back on it all (and reading about substandard programs in some parts of the country now), I really had a pretty good sex education in school. They tried to give accurate information. Most of it is applicable today (though some of the hormonal birth control methods are delivered in more ways now, like subcutaneous implants, and there is also HIV that was unknown when I had sex education, but all of the old diseases still exist, as well as the old birth control methods). They certainly did not encourage anyone to have sex, and I have not heard of any school program that does.
What seems to be the case is that people who are against sex education in schools believe that schools encourage children to have sex. Yet I have never seen any evidence that any sex education program does that. A good, accurate one will tell people that abstinence is a method of preventing unwanted pregnancies and will help prevent the transmission of some diseases. They do not forget that when they talk about condoms being 90-something percent effective for birth control when properly used (and whatever percentage effective it is as a prophylactic), and the pill being 90-something percent effective for birth control when properly used, etc. It is not like they take everyone to a whorehouse and make everyone copulate. It is not even close to that.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
