I believe I have cured myself from SEXUAL attraction towards children. I still see children in my age of interest as beautiful, but I do not think about anything sexual when I see them. I feel like I have cleansed a part of myself from sin. Also, "destroying a part of oneself" might actually be a good thing - "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14, 25). Just as we should be prepared to leave our belongings or friends to follow God, we should be able to abandon parts of ourselves if it helps our relationship with God.

As for "sex is natural so don't worry" I believe that God sends us a lot of gifts. But some gifts expect us to work to be able to recieve them. For example, your questions might undermine my faith. But, properly managed by me, they should be able to help me strenghten the foundations of my faith. We can see many situations in our life the same way. For example, masturbation. I believe it is a sin. I ask you for just this paragraph to assume it is. While we can misuse the gift and masturbate for long periods of time, it is actually a good thing for us to have something to overcome. We can during that time develop a bond with God so that he can help us stop / never try. It is a pretty sure thing that we will have to fight it at some point and it should teach us where to seek help - always by God. Even if we do fail, we can rise again from the sin and develop a deeper degree of humility before God. I myself can tell you that while the fight with masturbation was mostly in my head, it was a big help in following the path of God.
Therefore, even if something is part of human nature, it might not be a part of God's way.


As for children being innocent, I don't believe there is much that i could add more. While I believe that children (that includes young teenagers) have beautiful minds of great potential, but I don't think that their way of thinking is reliable. Therefore, it is great to use a teenager's developed mind for solving theoretical tasks and managing small its small day-to-day matters, when it comes to more important questions we can't let it independently decide for itself. I was in that age not so long ago and I still remember some of the mistakes I made. I was capable of not including strong arguments against my opinions in my train of thought and being sure I was thinking rationally (which I obviously wasn't). I was capable of not going (or at least being very late) for a scheduled meeting with my friends because I had to finish a session of a multiplayer game.
I understand the phrase "children are innocent" as: "Children cannot be expected to make good decisions, so they aren't responsible for whatever decisions they make and for what they do (since what they do is just an effect of their decisions)".

When it comes to proving God's existence or that a certain thing he says is correct is always hard. Faith wouldn't be such an important part of our religion if this was as easy to prove. All I can say is that I sense God's involvement in my life.
For example, quite recently I made a mistake. I believe I (however weakly) commited the sin of masturbation. I felt very guilty about it in front of God. I apologized to him and started praying. During my prayer, as usual, I wanted to read the Bible a bit. I open it at a random page and BANG! - my eyes instantly landed on J 8, 1-11.
And how appropriate was it for the occasion! I believe this was God's influence that made me open that book at that exact part. I feel God's influence in many other ways. Comparing that to the lives of saints I can see what that relationship might evolve to and how that might feel. I find myself sharing some thoughts with them about progressing in the ways of God. This leads me to believing that whatever God has told them is true, since they believe in the same God in at least a simmilar way and used to get (when they weren't yet so close to God) the same kind of influence as I do. I also feel how troubling it is to keep a relationship with God in this world, we are pretty much certain to fall from time to time. It is usually some kind of the world's influence that makes me do so. Therefore I believe that there might be a place where those restrictions don't exist, and it is easier not to lose God's closeness - exactly fits with the Catholic theory of heaven. Also, the word of God applies to my life so well, that I believe the whole thing is true. Together with the eternal life part.

Dang. That was long.


PS. Thank you for not being rude in your messages. It is hard for people of different religions to argue about them without raising their voices or reacting emotionally. Also, in all your posts you always have some points that validly call my words into doubt. I am used to less civilized arguments :)