Quote:
Originally Posted by Rudy
N.A.M.B.LA wants it lowered.
The purpose of lowering the age of consent is to satisfy their lust. If I could set it / it would be 18.
I think Canada lowered it to 14 could be 16. Reason being so boys can --------------I'll leave it there.
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I don't know... I'm just going to ramble a bit and let my thoughts flow on this one.... you can share your thoughts too.
God designed us to be ready for copulation and reproduction as a result of puberty. Never before in human history has mankind asked that young people wait so long before getting married. The end result is essentially society battling instinct. In biblical times, the age at which a couple could marry was around 14 for boys and 13 for girls (McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia). Think about it... nature (the way God made us) makes us ready for copulation/marriage at about 13 and 14. Ancient societies typically arranged marriages or allowed young people to marry at about 13 and 14. If one was unmarried by 19, they were considered an old maid. In our modern society we expect young people to deny their desire to couple throughout high school at the very least (roughly 17 or 18). If they go to college we expect them to deny their desires to couple until they are at least around 23 or 24. It doesn't surprise me that we have so many unwed mothers, young people slipping around, etc. I'm not saying that it is right, I'm just saying that it's no surprise. But lowering the age of consent would only complicate this. I'm just mentioning it.
Also in America we have this strange sense of wanting to keep kids "innocent". I'm not sure where this came from. Because throughout America's history at about 13 and 14 kids helped manage the home, hunt, fish, and helped work in their father's trade. Shakespeare's Juliet was only 13. And in Medieval and early modern European societies they married little girls off as young as 7 years old, although consummation wasn't until after she entered puberty. English common law set the age of consent at 12 in 1275 and lowered to 10 in 1576. The ages of consent in the American colonies were generally set at 10 or 12. Until the mid 1960s, the legal age of consent in Delaware was 7. However, this doesn't mean that the average American married that young. Typically the average American married between 21-26.
Of course, during some of these periods the average life expectancy was 45. So, there was a social reason for some of the younger marriages.
In biblical times young children worked the farm, the goats, etc. They knew the birds and the bees rather early because they worked with it. Also, families typically lived in one room homes wherein the room was converted from living area to sleeping area each evening. This means that families primarily slept in one room. Most likely young people were well aware of what was going bump in the night. Lastly, as with most ancient societies, Israel had public bathing areas. Families would gather, strip down, and bathe together in a local river or local pool. They also saw public executions and saw war first hand. I'm willing to wager that most 15 year olds had the maturity that we typically don't see until around 20 to 25 years of age.
But, having grown up in Ohio, with the age of consent being 16, I can't see it being lowered beyond 16.