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Children themselves probably shouldn't have children of their own. A girl @ age 13 or so may be capable of becoming pregnant, but her bones & teeth - & her brain & mind - are probably not fully formed. Pregnancy drains minerals & nutrients & liquid from the pregnant - the pregnant should not be in competition with their fetus for their own internal resources. Artificial estrogens & testosterone, & organic chemicals that mimic the action of these two - are presumably to blame for earlier & earlier onset of puberty in both genders. This may only be happening in 1st World countries - but as other countries' income allows a middle class, they will likely mimic Western food consumption, medical practice & artificial hormones use.
When the average natural human lifespan was much shorter centuries ago, people married much younger. But the point to longer childhood/adolescence for H. sapiens was - I understood - to give children much more opportunity for education & training in ever more-complex societies.
I wouldn't bother to look to God to blame for younger & younger sexual maturity in boys & girls - better to rule out all the environmental issues first; & I think the artificial hormones & hormone-like chemicals in the environment are a sufficient biological trigger - I don't see any need to invoke God's will in the question @ all.
you are judging from appearing in the 21st century.
think of a cell phone that was made in the 80's as compared to today. was it a design flaw?
We are talking about this is the religion and spirituality sub-forum...and the question is whether or not GOD created a design flaw...since some claim everything came about because of him.
That's a lot different than man creating a communication system. Man tries to do the best he can with his knowledge and raw materials. God is supposed to be all knowing and able to do anything. You can't compare the two situations...unless all you want to do is argue for the sake of arguing...which you've been doing quite a bit lately.
Young girls can have babies once they start menstruating, which is starting earlier and earlier.
I am wondering if teen pregnancy is "wrong," then is "God" also wrong for designing young girls to be able to conceive at young ages?
Please do not quote scripture, but think about this question, and give a thoughtful response as to why a human being would be designed in a way that would then be frowned upon and difficult to interfere with (as in birth control, abortion, etc.).
It seems like a simple design flaw. If women are not "supposed" to give birth until age 20 say (just picked an arbitrary number), then why would "God" design them capable of having babies at age 10 through teens when they are unable to support themselves, act independently, or have the maturity to parent a child?
You are imposing modern societal standards and circumstances on ancient (as in REALLY ancient) evolutionary biology. Teen pregnancy was not wrong 1-2 million years ago, birth control and abortion weren't likely practiced or debated, and notions of independence or "financial stability" or support were not the factors implicit in your question. The age of menarche in human females evolved during a time when life expectancy was 20-30 years... so babies were only going to have their mothers around for a limited time. In other words, the ability to give birth in early teens made sense from a biological perspective, even if it seems "early" in today's world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nobodysbusiness
I think I did not state my question accurately. I am looking for logical explanations from people who believe in "God."
That's the problem. And no, I'm not saying that to be rude or dismissive. But if you believe that God designed humans and their biological functions (e.g., the age at which humans can give birth), you have gone down a road where there will inevitably be illogical questions and conclusions. There is no design flaw.... it's simply the way we evolved.
The whole premise is silly since it's referring to the artificial standards of today and in countries like ours.
In other times and other places the ages at which people were expected to do or not do something is/was vastly different than our current arbitrary ones.
This.
I think the OP is confusing biology versus sociology. Our society has changed to where you are not considered an adult until you are 18 +. In other times society considered you an adult in your young teens.
Biology doesn't care about any man made determinations of appropriateness, biology dictates that you can procreate at a given age, and it's done. End of story.
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I think the OP is confusing biology versus sociology. Our society has changed to where you are not considered an adult until you are 18 +. In other times society considered you an adult in your young teens.
Biology doesn't care about any man made determinations of appropriateness, biology dictates that you can procreate at a given age, and it's done. End of story.
Exactly. What mistake? It’s perfect. 2 of my aunts got married around 17 and had babies every year until the age of 44 something. They are still alive and healthy in their early 90s today. My mom had 5 kids by the time she was 25. She used to tell my sister and I, by 25 it was considered old maid if you’re not married. By that definition, I was really really old old maid. I got married at 30.
Plus, current civilization is just a punctuation mark in the book of our development. Our biology served us well to get us to where we are today. Who knows what our civilization will look like in 500 years? It takes millions of years (or hundreds of thousands...) for a mammals biology to change when faced with a new environment (in general, sometimes they change quite quickly).
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Well, it worked in tribal societies, probably due to the fact that if mom was a baby, grandma would step in to assure survival.
It's just not a smart design, or if it was, it did not evolve to be functional in today's society.
Evolution does not work for the future. How could natural selection work at selecting which individuals are best suited for the environment it's offspring 8000 years from now ?
I think the OP is confusing biology versus sociology. Our society has changed to where you are not considered an adult until you are 18 +. In other times society considered you an adult in your young teens.
Biology doesn't care about any man made determinations of appropriateness, biology dictates that you can procreate at a given age, and it's done. End of story.
As an atheist who supports evolution, I would tend to agree.
However, i think the premise was aimed at people who take the Bible literally and believe humanity was created fully formed, i.e. Adam and Eve.
Because not only would the early onset of puberty be ridiculous when people supposedly lived for as long as 900 years old, the fact that humans have no rutting period and men continue to have active libidos even into their 90s makes the travesty all the worse.
I've always said that:
1) No rutting period
2) Non-stop sex drive
3) Reproduction being such a powerful biological imperative
4) Active libidos well into old age
5) Early onset of puberty
All of these things make God an incompetent buffoon as a designer of intelligent life. To make matters worse, he creates humans with a sex drive so powerful that it becomes all-encompassing for a lot of people, especially men, so he has to set down hundreds of stupid rules in a holy book to try and put the brakes on wanton sex everywhere - instead of simply designing a better human.
A long time ago, people had far shorter life spans. So they began marriage and families at much younger ages. These days it's no longer considered necessary or even desirable to start so young.
Well, from a religious point of view (I waffle between wanting to believe, but not really seeing it as a possibility), if you believe in God, then you HAVE to assume he does everything with a purpose, and he knows the reason why.
I don't think you can believe in an All Powerful, but think you know better in some areas. That would be hubris to an insane level.
Seriously, if there is a God, I would never question what happens. I would be like a one celled creature versus the Creator of All.
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