Is religion dead?

I'm supposed to be writing an essay right now so I'm on the internet. Standard.

Following on from my last serious blog about sex education I'd like to carry on with this grown up talk. So the essay I've got to write is about secularisation in 20th century Europe, I never thought I'd find the history of religion interesting but hell it is.

I am Jewish but also an atheist. It's easy for me to self-define this way because there are so many parts of Judaism that I can celebrate for purely cultural or traditional reasons rather than religious. A bit like Christmas for most of society these days. More often than not we're celebrating being with our family, presents and a massive meal. We're not celebrating the birth of Jesus.

My upbringing was very interesting, I live in a part of Manchester which is stereotypically known to be very hippie, left wing, vegetarian etc... And it is also extremely atheist. Growing up and going to primary school and then secondary school I felt that religion was dead, it was never an issue that came up and none of my friends were religious. Then I went to sixth form college and I met my first Catholic and it was weird. I genuinely believed they didn't exist in Britain anymore. But hey it turns out they do and now one of my best friends is a Catholic and an ex-boyfriend of mine was also a Christian. However, in my world they were still a minority. Then I came to university and within my block in my halls of residence at least one fifth are Christian. Now this completely screwed over my little brain that told me almost everyone nowadays is an atheist. It really shows how being brought up in a certain way or a certain place can make you believe things about the world.

Being away from home and the environment I grew up in is really helping me learn things about the world that I otherwise would never have found out if I hadn't moved out.

I realise religion is a tricky topic and often people don't like to talk about their personal beliefs in public. However, I'd like to know if you ever had any preconceptions about the world and then you were proved wrong.

I hope you all have a good weekend and you don't have an essay to write like I do.

Hannah

Sex

I am passionate about a lot of things and obviously as a human being sex is one of them. But, that's not what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about sex education.

I was educated in the UK in secular comprehensive schools and so my sex education growing up was a lot better than some people in say religious schools. In primary school we were taught about puberty, relationships and reproduction. In secondary school we were taught about contraception: aged 14 I had to put a condom on a test tube, I was shown photos of genitals of worst case scenario STIs, taught about abortion, all other different types of contraception and the myths and legends about sex. I am so grateful for this education I received in my early teens and even though those photos were absolutely disgusting it was worth my teachers showing them to us because it taught me one of the most valuable lessons you can learn in your life. And that lesson may even one day save your life.

Some, were not as lucky as me, and in their schools were taught next to nothing about sex and so when it came to experiencing it first hand they were completely clueless. I'm not going to name any names but when I was 17 I got very close to having sex with a guy but neither of us had a condom. His exact words were, "it doesn't matter, I'll pull out before I cum." Seriously!? Rule 1: you can still get pregnant or catch STIs even if the man doesn't ejaculate. Have you ever heard of pre-cum?

I strongly believe that every child and teenager has the right to a good and proper sex education. So many pregnancies and STIs occur simply because of ignorance. And it's not just the issues I mentioned that need to be addressed. So many people (teenagers especially) have no where to go if they have intimate questions about sex, body image or puberty.

I have come up with a mini solution. Seeing as I make videos on YouTube and my insight stats tells me that most of you who watch my videos are aged between 14-17, I thought where is a better place to educate people than via my YouTube channel. What do you think?

I plan on making a sex education video in the near future but I need your help! Please ask me questions on my tumblr (you can do it anonymously there) on any topic that fits in with sex and puberty. I will use these questions to come up with topics and a structure for the video and will obviously answer them too.

Thanks very much for reading this ramble!

Stay safe and sexy!

Hannah