Yes we do learn from others mistakes. But that usually comes after the teen and even young adult years. If asked, many parents will tell you that a certain amount of mistake-making and failure is important for a child to learn on their own. We don't stick their hands in an open flame, well most of us don't, thank goodness. But we do allow them to learn from their own mistakes and failures because through those they can learn from others mistakes.
True. We do need to learn on our own. But some mistakes don't need repeating. All I am saying is that we, as a human race, should have learned from what brought these unnecessary diseases into out lives. Granted, I agree that we have some that were mistakenly transferred through various means such as but not limited to, food, bad water etc. But some of those were properly treated (such as cholera - transferred through contaminated food/water) and people no longer left improper sanitation procedures in place. They may have boiled water, made sure food was cooked, etc.
However, with STDs such as HIV/AIDS primarily spreading through improper/unsafe sexual contact, we seemed to have not learned much. True, people are more educated and practice safe sex, but many still don't practice safe sex. In fact, adolescence and young adults account for three thousand new infections between the ages 15-24 every day and people in this age group account for more than a third of all new HIV infections. This accounts for it being transferred via sex/intercourse. Primarily, heterosexual. I know there are other ways to get the disease.
I don't think abstinence (till married) is a bad idea along with good education. It will without a doubt lower these numbers. Unfortunately, our generation isn't listening. The above numbers are disturbing.
A Wikipedia article that caught my attention when it stated that more and more people UNDER 30, have either very little religious interest, and/or have doubts in the existence of God. While so-called "Christians" have a great deal to do with this, this just shows why I think morality is low and getting lower, IMO.
At the very least, baby boomers had higher morals and better family structures due to their religious faith among other things, IMO. With this declining, we now (again, IMO) have more single parent families, people not believing in God, and more tolerance to things like premarital sex and the acceptance to homosexuality. I'm not claiming this is fact, just something I am observing.
We don't want our children to get STD's or HIV/AIDS; we just have different ways of reaching that destination. I say age-appropriate education is the best way to achieve that with the greater majority of youth. You seem to say that Bible teaching is the best way....
I was thinking about what I had learned in health class. As excited as I was I couldn't get the coach's words out of my mind.
Your first paragraph, I agree 100%. Education based on age is great and I endorse that. Combined with
proper Bible education, both can really help.
allowing same sex couples to receive marriage licenses and to enjoy the constitutional rights and protections that everyone else does will go a long way towards decreasing the number of gays with multiple partners and somewhat reduce unprotected sex. (I think you've said in the past you're not necessarily against SSM so that wasn't directed at you.)
Well, I would not fight for nor against the rights of SSM couples. I am not political and won't take any part of it. If law-makers go for/against it, it won't make me a difference.
I firmly believe that gays/lesbians are people and should be treated fairly.