raindropple

1. to drink alcohol?
2. to have sex?
3. to smoke cigarettes?
4. to take drugs?
5. to have homosexual relations?
6. to vote?
7. to drive an automobile?

Please add reasons and any other comments are welcome.

Morgan

The first five are irrelevant. People will do as they wish in these areas, not caring about the law.

However, the age to vote should be lowered. I fully believe that children can make educated decisions at 13. I believe the age to drive an automobile should remain the same (17 in the UK).

Skeptictank

1. 16 for beer. 18 for hard liquor. Like in Germany. It seems to work well here.
2. Depends on the age of the partner. (i.e. If 2 14 year olds go at it I wouldn't object as much as I would to a 35 year old guy doing a girl that young)
3. 18 (or whatever "adult" is defined as)
4. 18
5. Same as #2
6. 18
7. 17 (of course I favor more mass transit anyway)

raindropple

Thanks for your answers.

What is your opinion on the first 5 questions?

Why have you selected the age of 13?

MadMordigan

My answer is my own, and is not meant to be representative of all atheists.

The most important one is #6. We should lower the voting age to 15 and allow the kids a say into when they should be allowed to participate in these activities. Mentally retarded people are allowed to vote, but normal intelligent people are prevented from participating in making decision only because they happened to be born at a young age.

As far as my own preferences on 1-5, I have no interest in preventing ANYONE from making these decisions for themselves. With the exception of smoking, which i didn't start until I was 18, and 'homosexual relations' which depending on the definition I have never had any interest in trying, I took part in all of these activities in my pre to early teens, with no significant problems.

raindropple

Should 8 year old kids be allowed to decide they want to drugs and have sex?

Morgan

If 8 year old kids are so inclined, do you really think a law will stop them?

We should leave more up to parental responsibility. It should be up to the parent (and, to some extent, teachers) to discourage their children from drug taking. If their parents can't do that, what makes you think the law can?

I selected 13 as an age purely because it is when society disregards minors as "children" and refers to them as "young adults". Not everybody matures at 13, but those who don't aren't likely to care who's running their country.

As for answers 1-5, I feel them irrelevant. If I, as a minor, wanted to go into a shop and buy alcohol, the shopkeeper wouldn't stop me, because he wants to make money. If you're going to have these laws, at least enforce them properly. As it stands, the laws are pointless.

Feather

Questions 2 and 5 are the same thing. There is no significant difference between "sex" and "homosexual sex." Both imply the same (hopefully consentual) essential act. Some people are wired to prefer one over the other. Some are wired to prefer neither.

I recall "experimenting" with friends and a first cousin as young as age five. Some were male and some female. And were it not for an unrelated unfortunate incident when I was 8/9, I would otherwise be a well-adjusted and sexually mature adult (at 24 currently). I consider myself straight (males do little, if anything, for me).

Discussions with my current friends yields anecdotal evidence that the sort of "experimentation" I mentioned earlier is quite normal. Humans are sexual animals. I think the religious repression of our sexual traits can account for a great deal of the problems in the world today.

So for these questions, I'd say whenever it becomes natural, but only with others of a similar age-range. A significantly older person engaging in such activities with a younger one can be most debilitating and is almost always the result of non-consentual activity.

As for the drugs (questions 1, 3, and 4 are the same question), I'd steer my children away from them at all costs on a personal note. In general this should be at parental discretion.

I believe voting and driving should not be age based so much as psychologically based. Not everybody matures (by any measure--academics, emotions, &c.) at the same rate. Some people are capable of making voting decisions as young as 10 in my experience (with hindsight, I was first able to make reasonably informed, insightful voting decisions at age 13/14).

So a test should be required rather than an arbitrary cutoff age. Additionally for driving the candidate must be physically able to perform the necessary actions safely.

Of course, the above assumes an ideal world, which will not ever exist. Particularly the last two, as both are open to corruption (who gets to set the standards for tests; cheating and so forth).

[ August 08, 2002: Message edited by: Feather ]</p>

Amen-Moses

No fixed age for any of them but the ability to purchase cigarettes and booze should stay restricted to whatever the society deems as being the age of majority. Voting, driving and sex should all be subject to the participants having passed a suitable test first.

Anyhow why is this question aimed at atheists? I was unaware that any theological texts give ages for any of these things.

Amen-Moses

pug846

Yeah, I always felt sorry for those poor bastards that happen to be born at a young age.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.