There's an old saying that in polite social circles one should never discuss religion, politics, or sex. Well, I never promised to be polite here so, since this thread isn't about politics, I guess that just leaves sex and religion, still, I'll try to stay as "polite" as possible.

Sex and religion will always be interwoven with judgements, it's just a fact of life, but what about the facts of life?

Recently, here in Australia where I live, in a most odd pairing, Catholics and Muslims united to protest again explicit forms of sex education in government schools. At present (all) children in government schools get secular sex ed.

I feel sure most people would agree that sex education of children is a sensitive but important aspect of their learning. However, let's be clear we're not talking simple birds and bees stuff here, it's full on, hands on (often on quite literally) learning容verything from homosexuality to how to put on a condom correctly.

I guess the Muslims' view on sex, and more particularly sex for women is simple. A woman exists for the pleasure of her husband葉hat's it, that's pretty much all any good Muslim needs to know. I feel quite certain, too, that full sex education isn't going to be on any Catholic school curriculum anytime soon. Although, I actually find the thought of a nun waving a piece of phallis shaped plastic around kind of kinky. It's like an image straight from the pages of some sleazy men's' magazine, isn't it? I guess nuns in full habit are often depicted as deranged and depraved sex fiends in porn. Yes, there's something outrageously cheeky and titillating about the forbidden combination of nuns and sex, isn't there? It's like nuns are some kind of divine beings for whom sex and all things sexual just simply don't exist.

Ah, but I digress...

So what exactly is sex education anyway? Well, certainly it's about knowing the anatomy and physiology of human body; the actual act of sex; reproduction and, more relevant particularly in today's sexualised world, it's also about prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy.

Every week, in America alone, approximately 8,000 teenagers and children contract sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually active teens ages 15 to 19 have the highest STD rates of any age group, and nearly half of the 18.9 million new STD cases in 2000 were among youths ages 15 to 24. (Again in America, around 3,000 girls fall pregnant every week and the ratio is similar in Australia.) While gays and lesbians are quite simply just another (excuse this pun) fact of life. So, surely, the full scope of sex education is a good thing. It's not as if sex education is, as some people seem to think, equivalent to giving kids some kind of inferred permission to engage in sex.

On the other hand, certainly everyone is entitled to raise their children, within the common boundary of what's acceptable to the community, with the same morals and social values as themselves?

We live in a society where sex is everywhere. It's used to sell everything from cars to choc milk. It's there on everyone's TV. It's in every newspaper, magazine, and posted on every billboard. It's talked about. It's laughed about. You just can't avoid it. So, I suppose it's only fair and reasonable that some parents may want to make an effort to protect their children from, and at least have some control over, what they consider a deviation from their own good values and judgements.

Yes, politics, religion and sex... An an atheist has the right to bring their chilld/children up without a belief in a god or gods. While a left winger is entitled to raise their child/children to be accepting of so******t ways. Whether or not you agree or disagree with these things, they're still freedoms everyone is entitled to. We tend to take them very much take for granted, so why should sex education be different?