To: Polynomial
Re: The Catholic Church has about 2,000 years of good understanding of the Bible, and it rarely coincides with what people on a two way line with God seem think. And this is from a non-religious person, by the way.
I don’t know what you mean by “rarely coincides with what people on a two way line with God seem think”. Could you explain further?
Re: Sure it would. First, HIV can be and is passed in ways other then sex, and second you seem to forget that there's a ton of closeted married guys that run around makin' sweet gay love.
And you can't say 'well, if they all followed Christian values...' because I'll say that 'if people didn't kill each other we wouldn't have murder.' Both statements are equally vacuous.
First, fornication is wrong, whether straight or gay, so please don’t think the religious believe they are holier that thou because they are straight. Believe it or not, there are religious abstinent (or at least struggling) gays.
The primary vehicles for AIDs transmission are 1) Promiscuity, and 2) IV drug use. AIDS may have made it’s way eventually into society but it’s initial introduction into the western countries was thru sex. It hit fast and hard, in part, because of the gay lifestyle.
Re: I'm pretty sure that "We're all created equal, don't kill each other, here, have some freedom' are principles not limited to the Christian faith. Sorry, but these are common sense principles that arose in pretty much all religions. The fact that the founding fathers chose to write them down is largely a consequence of them being intelligent, rather than Christian.
Actually, you’re correct about Old Testament beliefs. This begs the question as to why so many are so phobic about a Biblically based system. In case anyone wonders what’s special about the N.T., it is more about a call to being holy rather than just good enough.
Re: It's a double edged sword: The religious want to be pro-life but they shun the people who have kids out of wedlock.
That is an unaffair and prejudical generalizing statement. My parish, and I’m sure many are like it, is very active in social concerns including crisis pregnancies. A true religious call to God involves mercy. But we all have limitations and when someone slips thru the system it’s not fair to just point fingers.
Re: Could it be that our great religious morality has created a hostile, non-supportive environment for them to carry their pregnancy?
It’s so common. Does anyone really look twice anymore at an unmarried pregnant woman any more?
Re: Dear anyone: If you don't want women to have abortions, and if you insist on abstinence-only school programs, and you vote for candidates who will not provide social programs to support single mothers so that they have a reasonable option to abortion, you've got to seriously rethink your position.
First of all, sex ed does not belong in the school. That aside abstinence is the only morally acceptable solution, to teach otherwise is to do a disservice to kids. The true villains are the parents and entertainment industry that set an immoral example and make it seem you can’t go without it. It may be hard to imagine, but no one ever died from not having sex, but rather the opposite is true. But you wouldn’t know that watching anything rated higher than PG or prime time TV. Kids are bombarded with sexual messages, none of which originate from religious institutions.
This country is full of support the poor. This country gives on average more per capita than any other country. There is room for improvement, but to put the blame on religion is unfair. Money only goes so far and I think we’ve pretty much taken it as far as it will go. Men and women also have to accept responsibility for their actions. The original argument for Roe was to help the few unfortunates who got themselves into trouble. Well that number has mushroomed into 1,000,000 (on average) abortions a year, 2740 a day. It looks to me like some people just aren’t trying or just don’t know how to.
Rather than an obstacle, religion is the solution. The truth of the matter is the better we follow true Christian values the better we all will be.