Pedophilia; I can't accept it.

[Aractus]

Aractus

YES, That's me!

• My argument is simple;
  
  1. Joseph was an adult and Maria barely a teenager, they were married, it is said that Jesus had brothers and sisters, so they had intercourse.

Arellius, I don't know how many times I can repeat the same thing to you. If this is your argument, then your argument is wrong. I've told you again, and again, and again that 1. we do not know how old either of them were, and 2. it is most likely that they are aged 1-3 years apart. You never produced your source that says Joseph is older than 30 or older than 40, and in any case I'm telling you: we don't know how old they were.

• So fad I haven't heard any churches combine today's laws with what is being said in the Bible, example; ''Joseph was older than Maria, but now that's a no-no, times change and we too must adapt.'' But it is overlooked, people use 2000 year old laws and rules to live in today's world, strange...

I don't have a moral, or an ethical problem with it to begin with. What I think I should say is that I think - and I'm saying this as a single 29 year old - is that in our society the paradigm is wrong: we are leaving it too late to get married and start families.

I do have a problem, in today's society, if girls aged 16-18 leave home and move in with their boyfriends. And the reason for that is: education. No one should have their education cut short, and I think that's the key here.

2. I started this topic because I read that Aisha from the Koran was....only.....9...when the Prophet Muhammad married her. Intercourse? I'm not sure, but getting married to a little girl is still pretty fuckin' weird to me. I read somewhere it might have been to save her from the clutches of other dangerous sexual predators, but really ? Was that the ONLY way you could save a little kid from being raped ?

This is completely different to Jewish society in the first century. The Jews wouldn't dream of it. No Jewish boy would be betrothed before his Bar Mitzvah, and no Jewish girl before her Bat Mitzvah. That is the age at which they were (and in fact still are) considered adults. It's really that simple. Then there's the fact that the betrothal (ie the engagement) would typically last 1-2 years before the marriage took place. The marriage - as you know - has to be consummated. Thus Mary gave birth to Jesus while she was still betrothed to Joseph and before the marriage itself. The betrothal, however, is the legal side of it - hence why in the Bible you read that Joseph had it in his mind to "divorce her quietly" (see Matt 1:19).

This is the reason why we say vows that in fact have their antiquity in the Jewish custom:

• MINISTER: (GROOM), WILL YOU TAKE (BRIDE) TO BE YOUR WIFE? WILL YOU LOVE HER, COMFORT HER, HONOUR AND PROTECT HER, AND, FORSAKING ALL OTHERS, BE FAITHFUL TO HER AS LONG AS YOU BOTH SHALL LIVE?
  
  GROOM: I WILL.
  
  MINISTER: (BRIDE), WILL YOU TAKE (GROOM) TO BE YOUR HUSBAND? WILL YOU LOVE HIM, COMFORT HIM, HONOUR AND PROTECT HIM, AND, FORSAKING ALL OTHERS, BE FAITHFUL TO HIM AS LONG AS YOU BOTH SHALL LIVE?
  
  BRIDE: I WILL.

Will you. This is exactly how the traditional Jewish betrothal worked - the vows were understood to be made at the time of betrothal - to be fulfilled later. We on the other hand, say our vows at the wedding, not at the engagement. But the principle remains the same - we are making a promise for the future. And what I find somewhat ironic is that the contemporary Jewish vows are "do you ... I do" and not "will you ... I will".

• 3. The fact that these two points are overlooked is strange to me, and my guess is if the church still had the authority like it had a long time ago? Grown men would still be marrying and bedding little kids, all in the name of...Whom ever you believe in.

• Furthermore;
  Congratulations on leaving the Catholic Church 500 years ago, however I guess you still read from the same book as the Catholic and Christian Church's do. The fact that you interpret the book differently, the fact that 2 different religions read from the same bloody book and have the same bloody commandments is a little bit proof to me that: Religion is man made.

The whole idea of celibate priests, for instance, directly contradicts 1 Timothy 3. So don't go pretending that the RCC is the same and gets all its doctrine from the Bible. Like many of their doctrines, it's something you won't find anywhere in the Bible.

• If it wasn't for people with a good sense of logic and reason [secular], my guess is it would've still been oke by Religion (like I said before) for churches to let grown men in their 30's and 40's wed & bed girls under 16. Nasty. It's a shame that religion is run by far too many complete and utter [perverse] morons. But hey, you're a theist I presume, big man in the sky works in mysterious ways huh ?

And this brings me back to my other point: this had nothing to do with religion in the first place. End of story.