Faas' column brave, reflects values of Christian society

I still fail to see how anything of this — as “loving” as it is — has anything to do with making something legal or illegal.

Thanks Ryan! I really needed a good laugh you wonderfully talented, moronic, shortsighted wordsmith. Now quit trying to dictate policy and get back to doing whatever you English majors do.

Religion is a disorder, a disease of the mind. The world would be a better place if all the religious nuts — christian, muslim, jewish, hindu, all of them — just went away. But alas, the world is too fascinated with celebrities, gossip, and war to give a moment of rational analysis of archaic beliefs like detesting homosexuality or carrying out jihad.

If you believe in an invisible man that has strict moral laws for a blob of carbon by-product on a speck of metals floating around a boring star in an average galaxy in an average galaxy group at the outer edge of faint strand in the endless cosmic web, well, you’ve been duped by people that want power.

wow. this is hilarious.

I fail to follow Ryan’s logic. Who made YOU, or any of us for that matter, the final judge of other people? If you are such a devout believer, you should be able to realize that GOD judges our actions in the end, not our “holier” neighbor. You should use that judgmental energy to LOVE others instead of condemning them.

In response to the last comment:

I believe that the usual “Christian” logic is to assert that the Bible — and they never stop to question the people who chose what got included in the bible 1700 years ago — is the ultimate truth, the final word from above. When asked why the Bible, and not the Koran, Torah, or any other “holy” book should be trusted more than human reason^1, they will go on about how their god is the “best” god because he’s the only one who displayed that particular love for humanity that let got himself crucified (interesting how they fall to arguing for an end) and will occasionally point to the fact that events predicted in the early parts of the Bible are fulfilled in the later parts.

Whether or not gay people should live chaste, they need to be accepted as they are, as people who are romantically and sexually attracted to members of the same sex and who sometimes defy gender norms.

I do not read this in either Faas’s article, or this one. In fact, Faas states that gay people don’t see the glory in heterosexual sex, as if they can be made to see it.

Apparently the only thing you anti-gay evangelicals are actually united on is that they want to be able to stamp gay people out of existence.

And for the record, no I do not think gay people should live chaste.

‘In a society that is increasingly tolerant of every idea and behavior except that which is explicitly Christian’

Its letters like this and people like you who make me reject Christianity. Don’t blame society, blame your false sense of superiority.

As a Christian myself, I constantly get fed up with the current mainstream Christianity. People display nothing but hypocrisy, judgment, and speak above others in a sense of Superiority. On that note, I am sorry you feel the way you do I can’t come up with a snarky name… and nor do I blame you. Jesus was in the world but not of the world. Grace is not being displayed by Ryan, but instead he is only pushing people further away from the Truth.

Onlooker, your question to “Blah” and “Ken” smacks of the sense of superiority you speak against. It implies that morality can only be derived by religion. I would suspect most nonreligious people would still agree it is immoral to kill or steal. This judgement can be reached without having it handed down by “God.”

Joe. I Completely agree that there can still be a Universal Law of Morals. More in a sense of humanity. A non-religious person lacks obligation to any morality system (Not saying that in a negative manner)… So my apologies there. For me personally, I see it a bit differently.

Blah and Ken- to ignore all of the beautiful results of the existence of religion, for people who believe in it and those who do not alike, is to claim absolute ignorance of the history of the earth. Also, to claim that religion exists without a substantial amount of reason is absurd. We do not operate out of fear, or exist out of blind faith. We instead revere God so much that we heed his commandment to love others the way that we love ourselves.

Morality is merely the set of principles on which we (attempt to) agree.

Morality is merely the set of principles on which we (attempt to) agree.

Onlooker. I fail to see how a religious person is more bound to their moral code than a nonreligious person. Please explain.

‘to ignore all of the beautiful results of the existence of religion, for people who believe in it and those who do not alike, is to claim absolute ignorance of the history of the earth’

The Crusades, the Holocaust, The Israel-Palestine conflict, September 11th: All religiously motivated…where’s the beauty?

Joe maybe Onlooker believes that morals are exclusive to religion perhaps? It is an extremely asinine idea but no one ever said religion and logic go hand in hand.

Holocaust – how about too many jewish people were moving(ed) into an already depressed Germany taking precious supplies (i.e., land, jobs)

Israel-Palestine – One country lost land to another country. Or taken or handed. Either way, eliminate Israel and the problems go away. Either way if they don’t piss off Hitler, we don’t have this problem.

9/11 – A bunch of people don’t like they way we live, the way we bomb thier countries or put people into power in thier countries and have to come back 20 years later and take them out. Or how about supporting a country from Russian invasion, then as soon as the conflict was over, turning your back on them when they need you the most.

Wow… and Joe, I did not want to present the idea that morals are exclusive to religion. The question I threw out there was how the idea of Moral Law had stemmed. My conclusion, based on religious doctrine, is all long-standing religious systems set up a similar moral code (ie: Don’t kill, steal).. In reality, Moral’s are utilitarian, really. Basic socialization requires rules. You know what, let me go back on my first comment and say that my logic was off center.

If Mother Theresa and Stalin end up in the same place after they’re six feet under, who was the idiot?

Personally I’d rather be the hedonist with the nearly justified Jehovah complex and people marching in front of giant portraits of me, but that’s just me…

To “I have a snarky name,” I don’t even know quite where to begin with how flawed this post is. First of all, none of the aspects of these tragedies which you point out are at all beautiful which was the claim made in an earlier post. At the very least they are justifications people have made to commit atrocities towards others. Beauty emerges in situations where communities come together to benefit all, not in an effort to defeat others.

… And the true intention of the Christian is the subjugation of homosexuals? Why don’t you religious types spend more time creating this wonderful religious beauty of which you speak and less time pushing your “truth” on others?

I’m so tired of this half of Christianity wasting our precious publicity taking up what is such a small issue (from a Biblical standpoint) — if it’s one at all, and I think that it’s not, but that’s not my point — when we should be talking about much more important things. Do you know how many people you drive away from the church, from the Bible, because of this?

Wow… and Joe, I did not want to present the idea that morals are exclusive to religion. You know what, let me go back on my first comment and say that my logic was off center.

Okay, I’ll play along. Let’s look at your first post. You said and I quote “…question for you both (which does not pertain to the subject). Why should there be any moral law if no faith/religion exists?” This question does seem to imply that morality is exclusive to religion.

Wow…Well spoken.

Specifically in most Religion’s, you can get rewarded in the afterlife for presenting a life of high morality. Giving reason for doing humanitarian deeds and/or doing the work of whoever you praise. That’s where I referred to the idea of lacking an obligation to a morality system (religious morality system). Regardless, morality has always had its place in society… I agree with you.