On Tue, March 27, 2007 2:54 pm, Christian Seberino wrote: > > On Tue, March 27, 2007 2:43 pm, Lan Barnes wrote: >> On Tue, March 27, 2007 2:05 pm, Christian Seberino wrote: >>>> I think it's fair for >>>> a minister/priest/shaman to presch that abortion is wrong. I believe it >>>> is >>>> wrong for them to try to deny abortiions to those who disagree with them. > >> Technically the origin of the Civil War was over the right to >> succession. >> But it is a real technicality. Slavery was behind the succession. > > <snip> > > You didn't answer my question in the direction I was hoping you'd go so I'll try again....your abortion example above sounds good but I tried to turn it around so your answer wouldn't be so comfortable..... > > If you were consistent that would mean if someone believed in and carried > out rape, slavery and child abuse you would say...."Well personally I don't believe in that but who am I to impose my views on others?". Is that what you would say? > > Chris
See, this is the thing that deeply religious people fail to understand. That there is a rational basis for morality, ethics, and law. It doesn't have to come from divine direction. Rape, slavery and child abuse are all inherently violence by one person against another. This is not a matter of personal "belief." It is readily apparent. The purpose of law in my opinion is to protect people from each other, not to make them better people or to please god. If someone does something really nasty in the privacy of his own home and nobody gets hurt -- all consenting adults and all that -- then I don't give a rat's patootie what it was. Nobody's hurt, nobody's business. I remember having a conversation with a sincere evangelical christian once who couldn't understand (once he found out I was an athiestic agnostic, secular humanist, whatever) what kept me from committing the most heinous acts. I found this simultaneously amusing and insulting. But later I began to wonder about him. Was his belief in god really the only thing keeping him from committing violent rape after rape? And me? Well, I'm still waiting for a clean needle exchange program so I can take up heroin. -- Lan Barnes SCM Analyst Linux Guy Tcl/Tk Enthusiast Biodiesel Brewer -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
