I just arrived on a spaceship from another galaxy, courtesy of the warp drive our civilization perfected eons ago. We also perfected a brain implant that allows us to read, understand and write in any language, even one such as yours, so I was interested to read this article and am now taking the liberty to comment on it.

I’m a bit confused. I gather from reading both the article and the previous comments that your culture has a tradition of denying sexuality to children, and this seems very odd. Our species also has sexual reproduction, and in fact our long and extensive space explorations have led us to expect it from any advanced life form; it seems sexual reproduction is a necessary ingredient to successful genetic evolution. I always took it for granted, therefore, that sex, which is at the very core of a species’ existence, would be something encouraged and taught to the young from the earliest ages.

It seems that on this planet, though, at least the part where I have landed, all the less essential life skills … language proficiency, mathematics, getting along with others, finding ways to be economically productive and so on … are strongly encouraged and taught. But not sex. I understand that you have schools where they teach chemistry, and there you have laboratories for students to try things out under adult supervision, but in the essential matter of sexuality you forbid your adults from doing anything except lecture to children using books and charts and abstract speech. Really?

Where did this idea come from that sex should be denied to children? Why is this group that apparently encouraged children to enjoy sex with each other and with adults called a “cult” and their practices spoken of as “abuse”? A vignette near the end describes someone who had grown up in the “cult” and considered his life to be normal, but then, after he became exposed to the larger “society” (I need to study these words: I’m not sure, but I think “cult” means “small group” and “society” means “large group”) he became a murderer who then also killed himself. Isn’t this an indication that there is something wrong with the sexual practices of “society” rather than the “cult”?

I’ll keep studying this to see if I can work out what’s going on here. Because of the tie-in with “Christianity” I have a feeling the whole sexual perversion might have to do with “religion”, which is another concept I find completely baffling. In the meantime, I’m sending a message home about this strange civilization I’ve encountered.