Pedophiles... really? wtf?

This is a difficult subject to write about. And I mean that literally - as I write this, I almost want to vomit.

Why?

I have my theories about that, but they are not what I want to write about. And I need to get through this.

So... biblical support for pedophilia. It's in there.

Consider Solomon's "spare the rod, spoil the child". Traditionally (and this is mostly what I was taught and subject to), this is a somewhat violent definition of "rod", and not a sexual interpretation. But the reasoning? "It won't kill them."

That applies to the sexual interpretation as well as it applies to the violent interpretation.

Then again, Solomon was... let's call him a bit promiscuous. The way I was taught, promiscuity is a horrible evil, not permitted by the Bible. Besides, having 600 wives, like Solomon had would be illegal. Not to mention having even 1 concubine would not be permitted by the Bible.

Um... wait.

So, ok, let's try Jesus's "it would be better for a them to be thrown into the sea with a milestone around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble".

There's a variety of ways of interpreting that. My current take is that if you'll wind up tearing yourself apart if you are close to a child and the child winds up hurting herself or himself. (Itself? Are there any good pronouns to use here?)

But I have to recognize both (a) that there are other ways of interpreting that, and (b) we have trouble being honest about these kinds of issues. Words are not adequate for expressing the relevant concepts.

After talking with my parents while trying to approach this subject: "I guess we do not talk about that kind of thing." and "There are some things people have to discover for themselves."

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So, enough of the religious (or maybe pseudo-religious) stuff, what about the practical side of things?

Well...

For one thing, child sexuality is very different from adult sexuality. If I understand it properly, children who get too much sexual exposure tend to not be interested in that kind of thing as an adult. (interesting problem here: what is "too much"? I should probably dig out the references I am hastily summarizing, also, because there could easily be subtleties I have overlooked.)

Also, some really incredible people are "child rape survivors". I'm not sure if I count as one of them, but consider (for example) Oprah Winfrey and Billie Holliday (and others whose names I am forgetting).

Of course, that might not be a cause effect thing. If we look at underage pregnancy statistics, we can see that the number of people who have been engaged in sexual activities before they are legally allowed to consent is some significant fraction of the country's population.

But that relates to another issue, which is overpopulation. Overpopulation eventually resolves itself, but with lots of issues which most people do not like to think about.

On the promising side, some of us are probably going into space.

On the negative side? A lot of us are going to suffer. Actually, all of us seem to suffer. Given how our nervous systems work (we are mostly wired to notice changes and to neglect steady state stimuli), some amount of suffering is guaranteed for everyone.

Meanwhile, getting out of the larger population issues, and into positive concepts of health: apparently something like a third of all children have bad genital hygiene that would perhaps best be described as "encrusted" [as reported by a pediatrician whose paper I remember reading maybe a decade ago, and I wish I had kept the reference].

We are seriously dysfunctional.

Oh, and internet means we're all getting connected, at least to some degree.

I guess we're all going to manage, to some degree. Or not.