By Luc Loranhe (2004)

Young people on the path from being a child to being an adult are biologically primed to search for excitement. Basically, the excitement they are primed to search for, is sexual. They are also primed to experiment, and easy to attract to things to which many of their pears are attracted.

If they are sexually frustrated, or at least, if their sense for excitement is frustrated, they easily become disciples of teachings that promise them a grand solution.

This is why religions need sexually repressive morals. In the social orders maintained by religions, the more sexual expression is curtailed, the easier it is to turn young people into fanatics. Islam excels in this.

To be willing to sacrifice one's life and to become a suicide bomber is the ultimate in fanaticism. And a paradise in which a man who died as martyr will avail of an eternal stream of young beautiful virgins to play with, is the ultimate of a grand-solution promise.

The only sensible alternative would be sexual freedom, here and now. But the West, at the beginning of the third millennium, does not offer this alternative, either. Instead, the US, as the Western culture of guidance, is lead by politicians and other people of influence who pursue their own brand of religious fundamentalism, opposing premarital and extramarital sex, and even birth control.

If they could get that far through the US Supreme Court, both premarital and extramarital sex would again be outlawed, and other countries would be pressured to follow suit.

As an alternative to sex, drugs can provide the excitement young people are looking for. Not that this would be a healthy solution. But young people who do find excitement through drugs are at least rather immune to the teachings of religious fanaticism.