Creation vs. Evolution

[MikeFerrara]

Theunis, I sincerely hope that's just a language typo.



Who knew? There IS a solution for world peace!


1,500 animal species practice homosexuality

"Homosexuality is quite common in the animal kingdom, especially among herding animals. Many animals solve conflicts by practicing same gender sex.

From the middle of October until next summer the Norwegian Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo will host the first exhibition that focuses on homosexuality in the animal kingdom.

"One fundamental premise in social debates has been that homosexuality is unnatural. This premise is wrong. Homosexuality is both common and highly essential in the lives of a number of species," explains Petter Boeckman, who is the academic advisor for the "Against Nature's Order?" exhibition."

That's would all be highly relevant if we were one of those other species.

 

[Thalassamania]

Well, I don't think it's very nice or necessarily very smart business practice to base hire/fire decisions on race or gender. However, I don't think it should be regulated by the government either.

So you don't think that the government should have a role in assuring that all citizens should be assured their inalienable rights? Come on Mike, I know you better than that. Don't let yourself get painted into a corner.

Even more relevant to you (Thal) and to me is age discrimination in hiring. I run into that all the time. Very sad, for us!

The overall issue always seems to come back to "fairness," and fairness by and large is a matter of tolerance everywhere.

Age discrimination is very real, but a big part of that is that employers don't want to pay for someone who has actually proven that they know how to do the job, they'd rather take a risk with someone young, at half the price (or less).

 

[shoredivr]

Do you drink wine? If you do, then a Muslim constitution would forbid you, and the punishment would be imprisonment, which would take away all of your property and ruin your career. That would be a steep punishment for you, simply for tasting wine. How about wearing a veil across your face? Or holding hands in public? Same thing. Governments must be secular in order to ensure religious freedom.

Agreed wholeheartedly.

So you are violating the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Therefore you should probably move out of the nation you are in, and instead to another which supports your views

Psst, nereas: Theunis's location says Pretoria, SA. Of course, he could be an American living in Pretoria...

 

[BMR]

All that I know is when I die there'll be a beer volcano and stripper factories...

 

[MikeFerrara]

Let me list your issues and then discuss them:

3) abortion

I would never want to be the person to tell someone else what to do in the case of their own body. It seems simply wrong to make yourself a judge and jury over someone else. This issue is never mentioned anywhere in the Bible, therefore I do not see where you equate this with "sin." Love your enemies, because failing to do so IS a sin, in case you have forgotten.

In the interest of brevity and because I'm getting lazy, I'm going to skip the Biblical references but if you want some please ask.

The Bible tells us that God opens the womb to allow conception and that he knows each us in the womb. Though the bible doesn't mention abortion, it does teach that the unborn child is a person that God created...and there is the don't murder thing.

4) pornography

This word is a combination of 2 greek words, one for "harlot" and the other for "images of." It is also not mentioned in the Bible anywhere, of course. The ancient Greeks and Romans made statues of nude figures to appreciate the artistry of nudity. Modern artists and photographers do the same thing. Why then do you call it a sin??

Good one. According to Biblical teaching, an obvious problem here is lust. It's lust that is the sin. We are all instructed not to temp or place a stumbling block in front of our brother and specifically related to this end women are instructed to dress modestly.

As I understand scripture, this would be a matter of context. A nude form on it's own isn't the sin. Of course, pornography includes way more than just nude forms.

I skipped prostitution but that one should be obvious...the fornication and sex outside of marriage thing.

5) sins

The most obvious answer to this question involves "who has the right to impose religious-secular values on another?"

God defines sin. How we use that in our laws is another matter. Of course, what many of us believe to be God's law influences how we live and vote.

 

[redacted]

Well, I don't think it's very nice or necessarily very smart business practice to base hire/fire decisions on race or gender. However, I don't think it should be regulated by the government either.

Do you not think the government should protect its citizens? Do you think this protection should only be provided in an immediate life or death situation?

 

[shoredivr]

That's would all be highly relevant if we were one of those other species.

Well, we ARE just another mammalian species. Homo sapiens.

domain: Eukaryota
kingdom: Animilia
phylum: Chordata
class: Mammalia
order: Primates
family: Hominidae
genus: Homo
species: sapiens

 

[MikeFerrara]

Let's start with Don't Ask/Don't Tell, if your a homosexual you can't serve openly in the armed forces.

What considerations went into this policy? Are there valid military functional considerations? Maybe the rights of others too?

Note that those are questions rather than statements. I don't know the answer.

Some states have laws, like Florida, that don't allow homosexuals to adopt.

It seems clear enough that the correct question here isn't one of discrimination against homosexuals but rather of the welfare of the child.

Marriage status (single people can have a rough time) as well as race, age and residency as well as sexual orientation and a bunch of other stuff are often taken into consideration...again, in "the best interest of the child"

 

[nereas]

...God defines sin. How we use that in our laws is another matter. Of course, what many of us believe to be God's law influences how we live and vote.

It is very unfortunate that such votes forget the importance of the 1st Amendment. That kind of voting can even hurt you. Governments need to be secular, and not religiously biased, simply because you are are never going to get 6 billion people to agree on what is "god."

As I said, too, by the way, "god" is an English corruption of the Gothic word "gott," which only means The Gothic Peoples, or the good, or goodness itself. It is not a name, so you really need not be capitalizing it.

If you want to learn names, you need to read the Bible in Hebrew and Greek. Hebrew for his father's name, and Greek for his.

 

[shoredivr]

My, what a lively thread, almost as lively as all the mosquitos outside my door

Anyway, this quote from nereas got me thinking about something I'd read last year:

Do you drink wine? If you do, then a Muslim constitution would forbid you, and the punishment would be imprisonment...

...somewhat illustrated in this link:

Muhammad, the Quran, and Prohibition: Islam’s punishments for drinking and gambling
2:219 They ask you [Prophet] about intoxicants and gambling: say, "There is great sin in both, and some benefit for people: the sin is greater than the benefit." [...]

In no way is this verse a clear and uncompromising edict on the two personal practices of drinking alcohol and gambling. (Islam teaches that all intoxicants are criminal; cf. Bukhari, Drinks, vol. 7, nos. 5579-5589; Muslim no. 7186.) It seems contradictory to call the two acts mostly sinful but partially beneficial. It may be argued that alcohol is sinful in its morality, but beneficial in its health for the body (e.g. helping digestion). However, Allah will later prohibit it completely, so either it is sinful morally regardless of the year on the Muslim calendar, or it is not.


What it reminded me about was how some religious edicts and laws change over time.