Why is it illegal to be happy?

[Ciel_Rouge]

The age at which people become mature enough for consent varies greatly.

Indeed. Darkstar, please take a look at this chart - does it not look just CRAZY??? The VERY SAME person is perfectly "mature" and "adult" in North Carolina but completely "irresponsible" and "underage" in California:

The xtian views on sex purport it as evil(ish?) but it really boils down to when someone is mature enough to understand what they are doing.

I highly doubt that. The Christians, at least the Catholics and the Orthodox obsessively BAN THE USE OF CONDOMS. Is this responsible? If you visit the Balcans in Europe you will find out that STDs are very widespread there and this is no coincidence.

As for 'adult' entertainment, one would think that people would be less opposed to it than to the actual act, which would include the risk of pregnancy, STDs, etc. (mostly if they don't know what they're doing).

Yeah, you would expect people to be LESS opposed IF they acted based on REASON. But they act based on RELIGION. According to them, adult entertainment is "bad" because:

1. it is ENTERTAINMENT so it shows that you can actually ENJOY your sexuality, that it is fun and a complex thing and not only procreation
2. it shows people having sex outside of marriage
3. it shows sexual expression that does not lead to procreation

I suppose the reason why the age of consent is lower than the age for adult entertainment is because the priests want people to strongly associate sex with procreation and penetration so that they disregard or at least are less influenced by the idea that pleasure and sexuality is part of being human and being alive and a very complex thing.

To an Xtian, every time you do anything sexual, you are at least trying to make a baby. This excludes or at least deems irrelevant such ideas as:

1. satisfying your partner
2. playing your fantasies
3. having fun and being open and creative

It is as if somebody told you to eat just to get the nutrients and stay aive but never care about the taste or have fun cooking. Would you like to live in a world like that?