Bryan Fischer of the AFA: Adolescence is a myth created by liberals to hurt marriage and capitalism

[ck4829]

There are implications in this for our system of education. We should roll back secondary education to the point where our students are graduating from high school by age 16. We can teach them everything they need to learn at the secondary level by then, and prepare them for the next stage in life, which could be further education, apprenticeship, or vocational education. We should expect them to be launching into some kind of career trajectory by the time they are 16.

There are implications in all of this for the institution of marriage. By idolizing adolescence, we have artificially prolonged the age at which people enter in marriage. The average is now, according to 2007 figures, about 27.5 years for men and 25.6 for women.

But the young men and women whom God has created become sexually mature by their mid-teens. The bodies that God has created are ready for sexual intimacy by the time they are 16. Unless God has made a mistake in the way he has designed our sexuality, then we need to rethink our whole understanding of the optimum age for entering into marriage.

We know that sex is good, and that it is designed by God for marriage. It is his design that all of our sexual energy be channeled into the marriage relationship. Now if God has designed our bodies so that they are prepared for sexual union by age 16, then perhaps he is telling us that we should be emotionally, mentally, and spiritually prepared to enter into marriage at about the same time or shortly thereafter.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-children-should-be-ready-marriage-and-work-age-16

Maybe this kind of lifestyle was appropriate in the time when people could expect to live to be 40, but it's not really going to fly nowadays.

[fascisthunter]

1. fanatical

[marmar]

2. Dude is f**king nuts.

nt

[joeybee12]

5. Really, certifiably insane...nt

[postatomic]

19. Insane?

How so?

His position on this is based on his beliefs. Someone like this is just tailoring their beliefs to fit a certain contention. He doesn't consider the fact that teenagers usually don't have the financial ability to support a family. He just ignores the truth because they don't fit his beliefs.

That doesn't make him insane. But if you feel it does, please tell me why you think this to be true.

Thanks
:hi:

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. Good Grief!

:crazy: :puke:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

4. Jesus Christ --

I was a fucking IDIOT at 16 and had no business marrying anyone or deciding my life path. :crazy: And I had been raised with plenty of responsibilities and 11 years of "spiritual preparation".

[Iris]

6. I guess we have to just ignore what we've learned about how the brain develops

[Xithras]

9. Science? Naw, that's librul garbage!

Everyone knows that scientists are all closet socialists trying to bring on the next left wing revolution. Science is for communists and weenies.

[Iris]

15. and yet, here's a fellow on WorldNet Daily who thinks the voting age should be raised to 30 based on

the science that the brain doesn't fully develop until age 25!

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=230009

[liskddksil]

7. He's definitely correct on one point here ending with "is good"

[GodlessBiker]

8. Iran's Ahmadinejad just said the same thing. They are in agreement on so many levels.

[some guy]

25. +1

[AspenRose]

34. Christian Taliban.

:puke:

[GodlessBiker]

35. That is exactly what they are.

[LeftinOH]

10. Another fundie obsessed about teens and sex; let's wait for the inevitable sex-scandal

surrounding this creep.

[Brickbat]

18. Seriously.

I think you are right on.

[Fumesucker]

11. Hire teenagers while they still know everything..

Clearly these kids don't need any more schooling, they already know everything and are only going to lose brain cells and knowledge from sixteen years on..

[hobbit709]

12. Well, now we know what his particular thing is.

Wonder how long before he makes the sexual offender list.

[Jim__]

13. I agree that teenagers are ready for sex at age 16.

Our culture denies this; mostly asking them to refrain from sexual activity. I think we should recognize this powerful drive in kids and come to terms with a better way to deal with it than pretending it's not there; or is immopral for them to act on it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. Which is NOT the same thing as ready for marriage at 16. nt

[Jim__]

17. I agree.

But, I do wonder how many social problems with teenagers are due to this very real conflict between powerful drives and social sanction.

[Xithras]

30. Minor point, our culture doesn't really "deny" it.

Only 11 states set their "age of consent" at 18, and five of those have exceptions allowing a younger limit if both partners are minors.

In most of the country, it's perfectly legal for a 28 year old and a 16 or 17 year old to have a relationship.

One of the great ironies about living here in "liberal" California is that we're one of only six states that sets the minimum age of consent at 18 AND offers no legal exceptions if both partners are minors. We lowered the penalties a number of years ago, but didn't actually legalize it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. These guys just want to make hot 16 year olds legal. nt

[Iggo]

21. You said it nicer than I did.

[Iggo]

20. I think he just wants to fuck teenagers. (n/t)

[David__77]

22. The religion of bestiality.

That is what he is saying - that humankind is but another of various animal species. He is saying that our secretion of sexual impulses must necessarily guide our live-defining activities: disgusting. This sort of witchcraft is nauseating.

[KamaAina]

23. Another episode of "Thank you, Bryan Fischer!"

The guy is nuttier than the entiore state of South Carolina.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. Yah, frat boys. We're listening.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. Hey, wait a minute. Didn't I read an article yesterday claiming that Muslims

are trying to get 16 year old girls to get married? What is up with this? Are the right-wing Christians and Muslims replenishing their armies?

[LWolf]

27. Adolescent brain-pruning gives us the "terrible teens:"

much like the "terrible twos," which is also stimulated by brain development, but here add size, weight, and hormones.

Deciding on a permanent mate and vocation might be better postponed until the late 20s. Ignoring powerful biological realities for adolescence is foolish, as well.

During adolescence, brain connections and signaling mechanisms selectively change over time to meet the needs of the environment. Overall, gray matter volume increases at earlier ages, followed by sustained loss and thinning starting around puberty, which correlates with advancing cognitive abilities. Scientists think this process reflects greater organization of the brain as it prunes redundant connections, and increases in myelin, which enhance transmission of brain messages.

Other parts of the brain also undergo refinement during the teen years. Areas associated with more basic functions, including the motor and sensory areas, mature early. Areas involved in planning and decision-making, including the prefrontal cortex -- the cognitive or reasoning area of the brain important for controlling impulses and emotions -- appear not to have yet reached adult dimension during the early twenties. The brain's reward center, the ventral striatum, also is more active during adolescence than in adulthood, and the adolescent brain still is strengthening connections between its reasoning- and emotion-related regions.

Scientists believe these collective findings may indicate that cognitive control over high-risk behaviors is still maturing during adolescence, making teens more apt to engage in risky behaviors. Also, with the brain's emotion-related areas and connections still maturing, adolescents may be more vulnerable to psychological disorders.

http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=brainBriefings_Adolescent_brain

[AspenRose]

37. Absolutely correct.

But probably viewed with suspicion since human development over the lifespan is based on science and book learnin,' you betcha! :dunce:

[yellowcanine]

28. What a pant load. Some girls are sexually mature by 12 or sooner.

So should we say that a 12 year old is old enough to get married? And while a 16 year old may be old enough to reproduce, that doesn't mean they have the emotional maturity to be married OR to raise a child.

I am guessing that this nut job does not have a 16 yr old daughter.

[Dappleganger]

29. Most 20 yr. olds aren't ready for marriage.

Or 25, LOL! Kids are forced to extend college because it costs so much and they have to work to make ends meet. Personally my husband and I have urged our 4 kids (now all teens) to wait until at least 25--have school and grad school behind them, pay off some bills, live at home to save some $$, go find a nice place outside of FL to make a life. Live with your SO, I don't care (and even think it's a good idea) but don't go and get married just because it's the next thing on your checklist.

[ClassWarrior]

31. Sounds like social engineering to me.

SOCIALIST!! SOCIALIST!! :bounce:

NGU.

[dembotoz]

32. how do you get rid of public education????

reduce it by 1/6.

[Igel]

33. Not a problem.

The problem is getting the bottom 25% or so to stay caught up.

What's fun is to watch the spiraling curriculum: This year we do fractions. Next year we do fractions. The year after that we do fractions. And then, the following year, guess what! Fractions. You need to repeat it over and over and over for theory-internal reasons as well as because the kids forget. Well, some of them. Others are bored stiff until they peel off to do something different allowing those who still didn't learn it to again study, you got it, fractions.

[Igel]

36. There's actually a valid point in there somewhere.

There are numerous adolescences stacked on top of each other. They're out of synch. There are probably good evolutionary reasons for some of the "out-of-synchedness" but they may well be obsolete.

100k years ago if you had kids before you think things through, while you're stronger and physically more resilent, you're likely to have had more kids survive. Voila. Primary purpose of genitals, secondary purposes, social empowerment were all nicely linked with breadwinning and forming a family.

It used to be at 16-18 you could get married: Many could manage 3-5 years of sexual maturity before starting their families, and those who couldn't married younger. By then women's bodies could manage pregnancies fairly well and the men and women were developed enough to engage in appropriate labor and work. Older people were around to manage the impulsiveness. Reproduction was a bit out of synch, but empowerment, social standing, and sexuality were made to synch up reasonably well. Reasonably well, and that because it was possible, socially, to manage the physical asynchrony. Still, in some places the average date of first birth was 7 months or so after average date of marriage.

At the time, of course, kids worked. "Childhood" is, to a large extent, a social construct.

Now we've spread the adolescences out even more and then try to argue there's only one "adolescence". Earlier reproductive maturity, coupled with greater social pressure to be sexually active earlier while cranking up the social pressure to not marry until later and extending adolescence by increasing the length of time spent in school. We say that at 20 you can't drink but can marry and soldier and decide on your career, at 16 you can have sex but not actually work without special permission but at 14 you can decide whether or not to have children. We treat 14-year-olds as adults over serious matters and 20-year-olds as children over in fairly trivial matters.

And we manage the asynchrony even worse, with a lot of minors having kids without social structures around to manage the impulsiveness. Instead, we even laud the impulsiveness.

[KamaAina]

38. Have you ever seen him and Ahmadinejad in the same place at the same time?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4623934#4624415

:tinfoilhat:

[NC_Nurse]

39. My thoughts exactly. They are on the same page apparently.