Not being a parent myself, I realize that I can't entirely understand the feelings that many parents have.

However I think the whole insanity over pedophiles has gone too far. The honest fact is that pedophiles have been a huge fact of history, with a disturbing percentage of those civilizations you studied in high school enjoying young girls and young boys.

Greeks, yep -- hell, they didn't really like women anyways. Romans, Ottomans, various stages of the Chinese/Mongol empires. Did you think it was just women serving in the harem or concubines?

Yet we've reached a point in society where we can openly acknowledge such behavior as predatory and anathema to our beliefs as a whole. Which is a positive move, I agree.

But we shouldn't take pedophiles out of context. I mean... is it really THAT bad?

I mean, really? I always thought... uh, that murder was pretty bad. So was selling drugs, organized crime, adult rape, or anything else that could destroy dozens or lives. A raped child can survive. Murdered people tend not to.

So should we post murderers on every website? Make them live away from... PEOPLE for the rest of their life? 'Cause, of rescindivism rates?

Especially in terms of fear of the "unknown stalker." Facts are that if you're kid is going to be molested, it'll be by your husband, your brother, your newphew, neice, or best friend. It's not going to be by some stalker on the street with a bag of candy.

As disgusting as the website he was running might have been, I can't see why it's worse than running a White Supremacist website. Or an anti-abortion website with a "hit-list" displayed. This man has committed no crime (beyond violating the restraining order) and while expresses views we agree are anathema to all our cultural values, this should not make him a leper. At least not in the creepy sense that we should track him for the rest of his life and prevent him from ever, ever having normal interactions with anyone ever again.

At this point, I'm not any good at determining whether my personal convictions the foundation of my spiritual perspective, or whether my spiritual perspective is what led to my personal convictions.

I suppose, given that the most appealing aspects of Buddha's teachings to me are about compassion and humility, there is a relationship there, but how would I divine whether the feelings found the belief system or the belief system engenders the feelings?

My thinking on this matter is pretty simple-minded. I've known a few people who have caused some major hurt to others because of their behavior, whether intentionally malicious (such as a violent assault) or completely selfish and incidental (such as DWI-induced homicide).

Some of these people underwent a tremendous personal change after these experiences, and have SIGNIFICANTLY altered their behavior in an effort to prevent anything similar from ever happening again.

I can't actually definitively know if the thoughts or feelings inside these people have changed. I can only know that their behavior changed so dramatically that the problems they caused in the past appear extremely unlikely to recur.

Should these people spend the rest of their lives being distrusted by others, or treated unfairly by those who believe people never change?

I very strongly believe the answer is no.

Now I confess that I have never known a child-molester who went through the same process. The only difficulty I have with your perspective is that you appear to consider the "sexual attraction to children" to be the problem.

I think a "sexual attraction to children" is a statistically unusual trait, and because it's so glaringly out of sync with dominant cultural values, it's a real problem for people to deal with.

BUT--so long as the people suffering from such a characteristic can find a way to live WITHOUT indulging any fantasies or harming any children, there really isn't a problem.

I suspect my studies of psychology, biology, and mathematics have more to do with my views of the fallibility of the human phenome than my spiritual beliefs.

Child molesters have always been around, which leads me to conclude that it is, ultimately, a simple human characteristic which IS going to occur, X per 100,000 births (or however you want to look at it). Just like alibinism, Down's syndrome, and psychopathy.

If that's the case, as a society we have to choose whether we want to find a way to integrate these people into our world, or (one way or the other) get rid of them, marginalize them, or "imprison" them, whether in a cage or in a box of reputation.

If you're still around, I'd ask one last question on your perspective...

Would you distinguish between "pedophiles" and "child-molesters" in a program which identifies them to their neighbors? Or would you suggest that all "pedophiles" (regardless of whether they were child-molesters) should be identified for their neighbors?

I didn't name you as one of the woman-haters, yet you assumed I was referring to you. Hmmm.

Sorry, I get jittery around here, all the ad hominem attacks, you know...

He always assumes this. For brightstar it is always all about him. Witness that he even hijacked this thread about this important issue to acquire his own therapy session and to defend pedophiles.

We try to be nice to him because we feel sorry for him, but it is hopeless. Instead of having compassion for molested children, he has compassion for pedophiles. He becomes stranger and stranger.

Yikes, Defend pedohpiles??? You are sick and completely mischaracterizing everything I said. Prove your point using my words or take it back.

I was sickened to my stomach today hearing on the radio about some sick guy who raped and buried a nine year old girl with the teddy bear she just got from her daddy. UGH! I can't even write about it, it sickens me so much that such vermin exist. They have mothers too, but what created such beasts?

Anyway, I do not have to defend myself, I made my point, and I was quite clear in my contentions. go reread them.

I do not have compassion for pedophiles, but for all men and women, adult and child, who are weak and vulnerable. Sorry if I have a heart. Maybe that is my point, there are several sides to the sadness that is this disease.