Of the many problems plaguing America, this is one which I have the least sympathy and harshest judgement towards America.

Abortion? Teen sex? Abstinence? Viagra?

You decriminalized all sex outside of marriage. You made all sex a public choice. You virtually removed all moral, religious, and ethical standards surrounding sex, except consent. You ignored the complimentary nature of the sexes, attempting to claim each sex is merely identical: as if Woman was just Aw and man was Am, when in fact men and women are indeed different, yet compliment each other sexually like positive and negative electrical charge, even if they are identical spiritually and intellectually.

But this fallacy was done for economics: to strip humans of their complimentary nature to render the human into a symmetrical "individual consumer": the pillar of the capitalist society, a calculable factor of the market economic model. Thus, measures were made according to the 'consumer', the 'individual'. Laws and entire theories were developed surrounding the 'individual'.

But according to Human Nature, the individual person is merely a component of the FAMILY- the real pillar of human society. And that the individual man and woman compliment each other in marriage to form a family unit in which children prosper, all things being equal.

So the foreseeable future reveals that as the economy grows and continues to dominate American society, the family unit continues to weaken in each successive generation. Single parent households are the majority in the black community, reaching 80% in some urban areas. Similarly, single parent homes are the majority in the Latino community and are reaching 30% in the white community.

People talk of women deserving respect when they are single and pregnant; and that they deserve respect when they choose abortion rather than adoption. But the woman is violating the right of the child to have a mother AND a father when she becomes pregnant without a husband. And while a woman's body is certainly her own, a fetus is MORE than just HER BODY. Human nature is such that the sexes are complimentary rather than identical, and made the fetus separate but dependent, rather than completely independent or completely segmented.

So where is America, as leader of the capitalist world, LEADING the rest of the world? {britney spears}

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Usama, I'm not sure I see what your point is, here. Are you saying that capitalism is to blame for teen sex? It probably has nothing to do with the fact that they are physically mature, I'm sure--capitalism is the evil that must be stamped out! Are you sure your name isn't Osama?

One more question--if it is a woman's responsibility to carry her child to term if she gets pregnant, what's the man's responsibility, here? After all, it takes two to make a baby. Doesn't he share in the blame?

Your Ozzie and Harriet world never existed, except in some Hollywood scriptwriter's fevered imagination.

Historically (ie for thousands of years),

• Children of the wealthy have been raised by single women (wet nurses) who are not their parents
• Children of the poor (pretty much everyone else) were left to pretty much raise themselves. At best they were raised for a short period of time by a woman that was effectively a single mother (father either hunting or farming)

The middle class didn't show up until about 300 years ago. Then they created the idea of a "nuclear family unit" as a way of differentiating themselves from the "decadent" aristocrats and the "filthy" peasants. But it was an artificial construct largely created out of myth. Even then in the USA, the settlers lives were so labor intensive that children under 12 were raised by a single mom (father was out hunting of farming for weeks at a time) and then they were considered adults and expected to participate as full time laborers.

As for moral, and ethical standards around sex - at most what has been reduced ever so slightly are the unhealthy punative, manipulative and controlling rules around sex. That's hardly a loss.

And frankly, its hard to tell the difference between the hard partying life of Britney Spears and GWB at the same age.

Janipurr:

Usama, I'm not sure I see what your point is, here. Are you saying that capitalism is to blame for teen sex? It probably has nothing to do with the fact that they are physically mature, I'm sure--capitalism is the evil that must be stamped out! Are you sure your name isn't Osama?

One more question--if it is a woman's responsibility to carry her child to term if she gets pregnant, what's the man's responsibility, here? After all, it takes two to make a baby. Doesn't he share in the blame?

First, the name Usama is over 1400 years old. The best 'Usama', or 'Osama', was the adopted grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (saaw), Usama bin Zaid of who Muhammad called his beloved and of who he taught and nurtured as his own. Osama bin Laden is an aberration of Muslim history; imperious American myopia cannot erase the significance and heritage of this name. Period. And that's my thought on names.

Second, I laid out my point in the second paragraph: erasing all moral, ethical, and religious standards and nearly all legal standards surrounding sex- decriminalizing sex outside of marriage- left it exposed and a ready commodity to be exploited. More importantly, doing so went contrary to human nature. Capitalism IS the most powerful force in American society. That means the BENEFIT, and profitability, of a thing or commodity is its criterion. Thus, there should be no surprise that a man or woman becomes a 'dog', doing only what benefits them.

Third, I am completedly supportive of a man engaging in sex ONLY IN MARRIAGE and thus providing for his wife and child. Anything else would effectively be criminal. From my understanding, a majority of abortions are by married women. This signifies something else: NOT that marriage is somehow outdated. Rather, it signifies that ECONOMICS- "I can't afford another child" - continues to undermine marriage.

But abortion is not the only negative macrofactor in this equation. STDs are a massive problem. 100s of billions of dollars are spent worldwide fighting the effects of STDs. Many have no cure. In fact, pharmeceutical industries make billions from selling medicines for STDs which merely suppress STD symptoms without curing the patient.

As for degsme's historical lesson? Highly specious. Who's history, when, where, how? Deg, are you saying the 'family' is a myth? You seem to be reflecting on Victorian era England. Read Bronte sisters' novels, do you?

I don't care so much about Ozzie & Harriet, I'm talking about Adam and Eve. The model, not the exception. And not mythical prehistoric caveman metaphors about who cleaned out the cave or gutted the mammoth. And Victorian England WAS an industrial capitalist empire at that time.

There's a reason sociology is a 'social science' and not a pure science. Human relations are too complex for exact scientific calculation. Humans are social beings, not corporate beings. We must have a model, but we are prone to inexactitude.

dregs, can you provide links to facts to support your hypothesis/ you require that of everyone else,,

Adam and Eve were never married.

Yeah but they were jews and Eve was the temptress slut that made mankind fall from grace.

You know, genetics has traced the Y chromosome to originating at a single man in Africa whom scientists call: Adam. I can provide the links if you wish. While no one has so far traced the X chromosome or some maternal indicator to Eve, based on the genetic findings of Y, there are absolutely no traces of any other species of hominids within the human gene pool and population today. Thus, all living men today are from Adam.

Now one could cynically and satirically begin hypothesizing about womenkind originating from some lesser hominid, but I prefer to recognize that Adam had good taste and found a good woman who we all recognize as Eve. And assuming that mankind and all womenkind are from Adam and Eve, they being our father and mother, I find it highly offensive to call my mother a slut. And Eve did not make Adam commit the sin. Adam did it himself.

If capitalism is a force that broadly affects sexuality throughout American society, pushing it away from the exclusive purview of marriage and family, and catalyzed by the decriminalization of consentual sexual acts, then what accounts for the subsequent variation in sexual behavior and consequences within that society, which you have cited?

Furthermore, I would point out that rates of childbirth outside of marriage are higher in some European countries than in the U.S., that AIDS is growing fastest in Africa, not the U.S., and that women are not generally expected to have children until full adulthood, which breaks with considerable historical precedent. These things call into question your assigned status for the U.S. as leader in suffering the ills of perceived sexual immorality.

Overall, it appears that there are variables for which you have failed to give any account, and I would expect that a broader look a the psychological and historical context of this argument would reveal that human sexuality is a far messier thing that you've given it credit for being.

Don't ask us if we want the links. Just give them...

Acutally, no eve was not a temptress. That isn't even in the OSM. If anyone is to blame for anything its the primary deity should s'h'it actually exist bust since s'h'it/they have declined to appear on letterman there is serious doubts to that. So we can relgate using mythology as a source of authority to the trash bin.

That's right, let's do away with myths.

So anyways, Adam and Eve were our parents, period. Man and woman are identical in that we are each responsible for our own actions spiritually and physically.

And? Evolutionary DNA would work exactly that way. At some point there would be a dominant strand of DNA from which a female proto-human would emerge (Mitochondrial trace does put "Eve" back in Africa) pretty much close to where "adam" would be as well.

But you demonstrate your ignorance of Human Genetics when you suggest that X chromosomes of women have not been traced. Because X is common to both men and women, there is no way to do a distinctive trace. So they have to trace something genetic that is only inherited maternally. Turns out that is mitochondrial DNA.

BTW the reason they can trace the "male" "Y" chromosome is because it is a damaged chromosonal structure. LESS complete than X.

Degsme, I never claimed to be an expert at genetics. I took undergrad biology 10 years. So perhaps I forgot an elementary concept. Perhaps I forgot several of my elementary algebraic formulas too. But am I ignorant? Mitochondrial DNA is the maternal indicator of which I mistakely ignored.

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You can call me ignorant, or you can call me arrogant, or you can call me joe, or you can call me sam.

And degsme, I love women. So, peace.

The question still stands. And?

Darwin predicts that it is more likely that a single strain of H. Erectus evolved as superior and dominated others - instead of various sub-branches re-combining.

DNA tracing tells us this is most likely so.

AND?

Given the Sire/Damn example that tribal humans evolved with, both within humans and with the mammals that they were surrounded by, it is only logical that a Primo-genitor pairing would be part of the Origins Myth of any H. Erectus culture.

What does this have to do with demonstrating that "Eve" came from Adam? If anything the mitochondrial DNA suggests the obverse.