jim: In find that conclusion ludicrous paul: Of course you do. But you're wrong.
jim: Oh, thanks, that clears it up. I'm wrong because you say I am. paul: The underlying problem here is that you're simply assuming that what religion promotes must be highly moral. That's not the case. jim: Once again I will point out that curtailing sex outside of marriage diminishes so many social and health problems, something that no one can refute but instead changes the argument to "well, we can't control ourselves so forget about it" paul: You're ignoring the argument. The point here is that the religious choice is not better, it's worse. jim: It's worse for you if you don't agree with it. Or would be for anyone. Hence the comment about not legislating morality. paul: In another post you wrote that "religion is oppressive because religion exhorts you to be a better version of yourself". But the religious oppression that we're talking about here does no such thing. It exhorts you to follow shoddy "least common denominator" morality with respect to sexuality. jim: Shoddy LCD? I don't find it shoddy that my religion exhorts me to cool it until I find a woman that I then marry and then knock our socks off for the rest of our marriage, creating a much higher probability that our kids will be wanted, that our health won't be compromised, that I won't get some outside of marriage and risk everything IN my marriage. I could go on, but why bother? paul: In fact most of us are already better versions of ourselves than we would be were we to follow fundamentalist religions. jim: Well, considering if you reject the tenets of a fundamentalist religion, then of course you'll think better of yourself if you don't follow them. This hearkens us back to the "pick a lane" thread. paul: I find it remarkably telling that a person who recently accused this list of an anti-Christian bias is now sending messages like these. There's quite a log in your eye, Jim. jim: I'm not making any personal remarks to anyone, unlike you are now doing. I'm simply making some general arguments. If people want to read something judgmental into what I say, that's not my problem. You can bristle over the implicit message that you think I'm claiming a higher moral ground here, and I can bristle over the implicit message that embracing anything akin to fundamentalist religion makes me an idiot. --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
