Friday, September 19, 2008
Lowering the drinking age
I was thinking on what to blog on and it occurred to me that I was listening to a "Dr. Phil" discussion (yeah I know, Dr. Phil) on whether or not it is a good idea to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. According to the show, this law is up for change soon and is apparently a current issue. The argument for lowering the drinking age somewhat hinges on the premise that binge drinking will lessen if we allow 18 years olds to have access to alcohol and introduce them into "adulthood." Furthermore these advocates say that the excitement of drinking would be taken away and thus a decrease in mass drinking. The opposite side says that this is ridiculous and will not help the situation. What implications are there if the drinking age is lowered? Is this a good idea? An irrelevent idea? Will underage teens drink anyway? Your thoughts.
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6 comments:
This is not a big issue to me.
However, I have to lean toward the advocates of lowering the drinking age. Their propagation that alcohol use would drop, can be backed up historically: way back when alcohol was illegal, moon shining was a large problem, and many authorities became affected personally by the laws (due to family/ friend involvement, etc.). Conversely, when alcohol became legal in the majority of American counties, alcohol use dropped some 40%. Human depravity demands that people are attracted to the illegal.
Aside from that, I think that if an 18 year old can pick up a riffle and kill for his country, that 18 year old should be able to drink. So, lower the drinking age to 18, or raise the military enlistment age to 21.
Just a thought or two.
Thanks for responding, aaron. Though I could see how taking the opportunity to sin does have some sort of depressing effect to the human nature, I still am not sure that the positives would outweigh the negatives by lowering the drinking age. Does not human depravity tell us that left to ourselves, we sin all the more?
Ah. I stand neither strongly for nor strongly against lowering the drinking age.
I only submit that changing the law in the past actually decreased alcohol use. Why not this time?
Now I think the question should either change, or the argument is irrelevant.
You said that "... we sin all the more." This statement is either meaningless to the situation, or changes the question.
For you have suggested that an 18 year old would be sinning by consuming alcohol, even if legal (or at least that's what I read). The question becomes, is alcohol forbidden in Scripture (?).
I see your point. I guess I would at least refer to binge drinking at any age to be a sin, not necessarily drinking alone. I know that drinking itself is a debated point within the church. My point is that our depravity drives us to do things that are against what God approves of, and I submit that binge drinking lies within that category.
Indeed, unmoderated drinking is sin. But is binge drink the issue in relation to the law? People abuse the marriage laws all the time, but we don't relate that to the legal, marrying age.
The situation is nuanced immensely.
By the way, Paul and I can talk in person anytime we want; someone else say something (though I don't mean to deter Paul from rereresponding)!
I'm down with lowering the drinking age. Same argument that Aaron made: if you can vote, use tobacco products, kill in honor of your country, you should be able to enjoy a Mike's Hard Lemonade or nine.
Now, obviously nine Mike's Hard Lemonades for most of us would render us in a sinful state of mind, so that would not be biblical, but I think it would be better if alcohol became something that we could start assimilating young adults to, especially because we know they're going to do it anyway.
And since they're going to do it anyway, they are going to do it in unsupervised places because they know authority (parents, police, etc.) won't allow it. So by allowing drinking to be done at 18, more adults can be around them while they are drinking alcohol for perhaps the first time.
Just my two cents. I miss both of you, btw. I miss you in my heart... in my bosom (you know how I'm pronouncing that one...). Niiiiiice.
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