From: borden@head-cfa.harvard.edu (Dave Borden)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.marrou,alt.politics.correct
Subject: Re: Legislation of morality
Date: 5 Oct 92 15:44:20 GMT
Reply-To: borden@m5.harvard.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA,  USA

In article <1992Sep30.162334.14459@galileo.physics.arizona.edu> krueger@galileo.physics.arizona.edu (Ted Krueger) writes:
>In article <1992Sep29.212152.1916@m5.harvard.edu> borden@m5.harvard.edu writes:
>>
>>But you're free to believe what you want.  And I'm free to suggest that you
>>could stand to learn a little more about religion, science, and manners.
>>(And about AIDS, too - it doesn't sound like you understand the true nature
>>of the problem.)
>>
>Please Dave, educate me about the true nature of the problem.  Please 
>include your understanding of the facts that the surest way to avoid 
>AIDS is to avoid promiscuity (esp. gay sex) and needle swapping.
>
>Safe sex is only one thing...sex...it is not safe.

What we need to tackle the problem is the appropriate education - about the
reproductive system, about sexually transmitted diseases, about the various
types of birth control (including abstinence, but not limited to it), and 
about the risks involved with them).  We need to de-stigmatize contraceptives
(people are often embarassed to purchase them), and we need to make them
very available.  Essentially, we need sex education in schools.

What we don't need is people like you claiming to know the mind of God.
We don't need people like you denouncing other people's lifestyles.  We
don't need people like you denouncing homosexuality.  We don't need people
like you exaggerating the risks that contraceptive devices have (when you
exaggerate, then people don't take you seriously - we need realistic
warnings, not ridiculous exaggerations.)  The same principle holds for the
drug use and needle swapping problem, which you asked me to address.  Drugs
are very dangerous, and needle swapping is extremely dangerous.  But one of
the flaws in the way anti-drug education is pursued is that the effects of
the drugs are exaggerated, and the warnings are therefore not taken
seriously.  (I read an article about this in Scientific American, which
analyzed drug policy from a historical perspective.)  Sexual intercourse and
drug use are not really comparable, however, because intercourse is
intrinsically healthy, while drug use is intrinsically unhealthy.

The reality, like it or not, is that most young people are going to engage in
sexual intercourse, with or without people like you trying to convince them
not to.  It's normal human behavior.  We need realistic, honest education,
not exaggeration, not denunciation, not moralization.  The right-to-life
movement would be taken much more seriously if besides being anti-abortion
it were also pro sex-education and pro-birth-control.  Sadly, for the most
part it is not, and hence vanishes what small possibility there is for a
rational dialogue on the issues.

I ask you again, Ted, what I asked in my last post:  What makes you think
you know the mind of God, any better than anyone else?  I'll bet I know
what you're going to say: the Bible.  Well, sorry, that's just doesn't cut
it.  Blind faith is going out of style, and thank God for that (pardon the
expression).

    - Dave Borden
      borden@m5.harvard.edu
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,talk.politics.misc