Furthermore, yes, you're right, many Christian women have "kissed dating goodbye". Much of that has come about through a pretty known author's best-seller. It's the "Courtship idea".
I can see both sides, for dating someone before you've known them at least a little while creates a false impression of the person of whom you are dating. You may get wrapped up in infatuation long before you've gotten to know the individual's character, actions, life, etc. This can lead many people to fall in love with people of whom they have nothing in common.
On the other hand, I can see the benefit of dating, for not everyone is able to have the time, given their schedule, to be with the realm of their date's social circle. Furthermore, social circles, though they can protect an individual from being taken of by a person of whom is not their match, it does force a disciminatory factor onto the person of whom the social person is dating.
Furthermore, given the times, men and women of the same age do not often easily come into contact with one another, hence they're unlikely to develop friendships with members of the opposite sex of which they can interact within a social circle setting. Therefore, dating is the only option for guys and girls left out of the "social pipeline", unless they just happen to meet someone and all of a sudden say that they're just going to be friends. However, that situation is often awkward for both persons, though not a working improbability.
Especially after they are out of school (where it's easy to meet vast numbers of singles.) Once you have a real world job, it's almost impossible to find people. You won't meet anyone through work, most likely, and if there were anyone suitable in your church/bible-study/social circle, you'd have paired off with them long ago and the issue would be moot... If that doesn't happen, then...
dating is the only option for guys and girls left out of the "social pipeline", unless they just happen to meet someone
I can't convince courtship advocates of this. Heaven knows I've tried.
You may get wrapped up in infatuation long before you've gotten to know the individual's character, actions, life, etc. This can lead many people to fall in love with people of whom they have nothing in common.
This is so true.
Trust me, "Bad Boys" are just that. They're usually shallow, conceited, arrogant, immoral, and are not the type of guy for any woman to be dealing with if she is looking for a marriage partner.
I was probably guilty of this when I was younger, but more for the fact that I was naive (I actually thought they liked me for what was inside, not outside) and due to my profession I came into contact with more bad boy types. It's true, once a person gets out of college it is more difficult to meet a wide variety of people. But I must say this, I've been set up on blind dates by other people and those individuals turned out to be worse than anyone I could have picked.
I often wonder if it is women who do not want to marry, for I get the impression that they go for the "bad boy" simply to put off marriage, knowing that dating a nice guy will get them into the situation of which they can't say no to a proposal. I've thought that this case may apply every now and then.
A very interesting observation. I will think about this one. You may be on to something here.
However, you do live in California, a very liberal state. I imagine it may be harder to meet quality people because of the liberalness of the place.
Yes, I am a conservative but I don't think I've ever dated a liberal. I live in a pretty conservative area. These guys were probably more apolitical/libertarian and some conservative. Some of them post on this site.