Yeah Sworddude could you name some controversial traditional American/British customs? The only one you could possibly say is Halloween, and thats not even wrong, just annoying.

 

 

 

*looks at location*

 

 

 

Yeah, it'd be pretty hard for me to find controversial British customs consider I'd have been brought up with them.

 

 

 

However, there can be other countries that think of some of ours as barbaric. My point is not to [cabbage] over other's customs just because they aren't the same as ours.

 

 

 

If you had been brought up to believe in those customs as right, then surely you would follow them without question?

 

 

 

1. Well, you were talking to an American, so let's hear some 'controversial' American customs? (And please don't say gun-carrying). And are you trying to say there's nothing in western society you think is morally wrong? We're alot better off (morally, not financially) that other countries but that doesn't make us perfect because we've grown up here.

 

 

 

2. We can cabbage other countries customs because - let's face it - America/Britain are developed, democratic countries, where everyone is allowed access to basic human rights. Not perfect, but good. You may think this is a total contradiction to my first point.. but I don't think it is. I know that in the western world we have many problems, but in other countries basic rights are non-existent for many people, and in terms of what's right and wrong, you could say we have a better idea than others. Officially, at least.

 

 

 

3. If I had been brought up to believe something was right, I wouldn't question it? What?! The breaking of apartheid, the Peasants Revolt, the Suffragists and Suffragettes in the 19 and 20th century, the abolition of the slave trade, American Civil War, and numerous other examples. Subject people to cruelty and sooner or later they will realise their own rights. Morality is not relative to culture - it may be flexible around the world but there are things that should never be allowed, regardless of time or place.

 

 

 

*looks at location*

 

 

 

Yeah, it'd be pretty hard for me to find controversial British customs consider I'd have been brought up with them.

 

 

 

However, there can be other countries that think of some of ours as barbaric. My point is not to [cabbage] over other's customs just because they aren't the same as ours.

 

 

 

If you had been brought up to believe in those customs as right, then surely you would follow them without question?

 

 

 

Do you really think that this happened because of tradition? How old are you? Read the article and you'll see that the main reason why she was wed off was because they were POOR. Not because they wanted to. But because they can't afford her. What kind of [bleep]ed up tradition are you thinking?

 

 

 

*looks at location*

 

 

 

Yeah, it'd be pretty hard for me to find controversial British customs consider I'd have been brought up with them.

 

 

 

However, there can be other countries that think of some of ours as barbaric. My point is not to [cabbage] over other's customs just because they aren't the same as ours.

 

 

 

If you had been brought up to believe in those customs as right, then surely you would follow them without question?

 

 

 

Do you really think that this happened because of tradition? How old are you? Read the article and you'll see that the main reason why she was wed off was because they were POOR. Not because they wanted to. But because they can't afford her. What kind of [bleep] up tradition are you thinking?

 

 

 

[hide=Article Quotes]

Arranged marriage

 

 

 

"He didn't keep his promise to me that he wouldn't go near her until she was 20."

 

 

 

Many times girls are forced to marry older men, including some who already have at least one wife, Oxfam said. According to tribal customs, the girls are no longer viewed as a financial or moral burden to their parents.

 

 

 

Experts say marrying off a young daughter is generally still seen as the right thing to do.

 

 

 

In Yemen, there is nothing new or extraordinary about Nujood's story because children have been married off for generations.

 

 

 

Human rights advocates said it will take more than a generation if this practice is to change in Yemen for other children.

[/hide]

 

 

 

Looks like a bit of tradtion to me.

 

 

 

Please, make sure you read the whole article correctly next time.

Looks like a bit of tradtion to me.

 

 

 

Please, make sure you read the whole article correctly next time.

 

 

 

Wow, someone has a selective reading syndrome :lol:

 

 

 

 

Nujood's parents, like so many others in Yemen, struck a social bargain when they decided to have their daughter wed. More than half of all Yemeni girls are married off before the age of 18, according to Oxfam International, a nonprofit group that fights global poverty and injustice.

 

 

 

Many times girls are forced to marry older men, including some who already have at least one wife, Oxfam said. According to tribal customs, the girls are no longer viewed as a financial or moral burden to their parents.

 

 

 

Even the government is trying to do something about it:

 

 

 

The Yemeni government is holding legal and religious workshops to try to deal with the issue of early marriage.

 

 

 

If they weren't so poor and ignorant, they wouldn't be performing this "tradition" at all

Sworddude, arguing that something is morally acceptable because it's traditional doesn't work. So what if they were brought up and still knew no different? That doesn't make it right. A culture might pass down cultures of human sacrifice, does that make it right? No, but it means the parents don't have the full burden of responsibility. That's why we're (rightly) mainly criticising their culture, but that doesn't make the parents blameless.

In prehistoric times

 

 

 

Welcome to the year 2008

 

Oh well done. You read three words in my post and replied.

 

 

 

Care to read the whole post and try again?

Logically, it is unethical to engage in intercourse with a ten year old girl.

 

In prehistoric times, it was not uncommon for a 13 year old girl to already have had a baby. With such a low life expectancy, poor diet, poor healthcare and primitive care at the birth, infant mortality rates were high. There really was no choice in the matter.

 

 

 

Logically, this position hasn't changed. The continuation of our species is best ensured by women producing as many babies as possible, to the point where we reach our environmental capacity and excess population dies due to starvation. However, of course, we have developed morals and ethics since then, and enshrined those in law.

 

 

 

Much as I agree that having sex with a 10 year old is totally abhorrent (then, I've been raised in the West and this is Western tradition - the degree to which I have thought out this particular dilemma for myself independently is questionable), the point I'm making is that logic and ethics seldom complement each other.

 

 

 

Your point is valid, but my point was that generally, a ten year girl has not gone through puberty. Thirteen is a three years difference, and many young women have gone through puberty by that age, or will soon. I meant that literally, it's impossible to have a child with a ten year prepubescent girl, thus making it illogical to have sex with her.