BD, another attempt to claim that your faith has the answers regarding morals/ethics etc while those of us who don't believe in your god are floundering along taking the world down the gurgler on the way.

I expect any examples of either biblical characters getting it really wrong (the man after gods heart etc) or contemporary christains getting it equally wrong will be met with the usual cop out about them being sinners and only god being perfect. The "Do as we say not as we do" coverage.

To bring the issue into focus please answer the following simple question.

What is the absolute not "made up as you go along" age of consent?

R0bert

Robert...thats quite a good question.

I don't think 'age of consent' was an issue in the Biblical times.
The only issue was 'marraige'.

There is no idea of 'age of consent to sex' outside of marraige in the Bible.

When the values framework is in place to support marraige and discourage promiscuity, the age is something to be judged by the community. My wifes parents were married when he was 14 and she 12, but in both cases, they preferred to muck around with friends and play rather than be mummies and daddies. That of course was an arranged marraige.

The Biblical teaching is not so much about age, but about values.

Do for others.....etc.... should be the guide in everything.

I think the main social problem re morality arises when someone steps outside of the main and accepted values framework of a society, because they did not find personal fulfillment within it, and then they seek to alter it to suit their own situation.

I don't think its true, but I am aware of a tradition that the Chinese foot binding idea came from an empress who was born with small feet and did not want to appear 'different' so she then ordered that all children have bound feet.... So, when people get that kind of idea "I don't accept society, so I'll try to change it for my own values" there is conflict.

I take the point that Christians are doing this all the time, but this leads us to the issue of 'right and wrong' and we say that we are simply trying to restore the most workable and God honouring values framework which has been lost by the 'progressive/liberal' departure from our core values.

'Age of consent' is a bit of a red herring. I don't claim the Bible tells us when to sneeze or how to tie our shoelaces.

We see a lot of this make-it-up-as-you-go syndrome with our police, and with policing in general (including departmental regulatory activities, local government bylaw regulation and so on).

It seems to me that this often wobbly subjective inconsistent law enforcement is a major aspect of immorality in our society.

Time and time again laws are made or are stated to apply, but are then not policed. The police (and other authorities) often turn a conscious blind eye to all sorts of illegal activities.

Over the years this sort of thing has come to disgust me greatly. I think it sits right at the core of our whole discipline/integrity/morality/social cohesion/respect for each other/etc/etc.

And yet, few people seem to be particularly concerned about it.