We agreed that people are sexually mature way earlier than emotionally or intellectually mature and that culturally we do not recognize a person as mature until long after they become sexual beings. There is a 6 to 8 year gap between coming of age and being recognized as coming of age. It is as if our evolution has been lopsided, we still mature physically earlier than we are able to cope with society.
Our discussion started because many conservatives had recently stated that they did not want young women to get the HPV vaccine. This vaccine could prevent cervical cancer and save millions of women's lives. Many people don't want to think of their children as sexual, and because they deny this simple fact of nature, they endanger their children, as well as making it much more difficult to raise them. By the same token, when a person opposes abortion but also denies their children's sexuality, they often prevent them from getting birth control. They create a situation where then increase the chances of having a child having to face the decision of whether or not to have an abortion.
Culturally, we have the same kind of gap. You have science advancing knowledge and religion dragging its heels, gripping humanity and trying to prevent enlightenment. Often, those that are on the cutting edge of science will be attacked by the religious and traditionalists. It is difficult to reconcile a part of society that would rather hold on to irrational beliefs than do what is right. This is not something that is new, this has been a constant throughout history. Science often reveals the truth of the world at their own peril for how this will be taken by the religious authorities. Today, there are no official religious authorities. There is no religious rule in this day and age, so it is easy for me to fall into the trap of expecting science to be unconstrained by religion. Not much time has to pass between incidents that prove that this is not the case.
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