I planed to keep out of this one but I can not. How do you call people that try by all means to enforce their beliefs on other people? If my religion does not encourage gay marriage then it should not exist because is agains my moral beliefs? Get over it ! Gay marriage is the public recognition of two person's love. As simple as that. And any discrimination ( of any kind ) will become more difficult to impose in the future, as people grow more aware avery day of this kind of behavior...so if one did not succeed to stop gay marriage yet, than I have a bad news for him/her as the events will develope from now on agains his/her wishes.
Forgive my aggressiveness but this is how I think on the subject.
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If my religion does not encourage gay marriage then it should not exist because is agains my moral beliefs? Get over it ! |
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...so if one did not succeed to stop gay marriage yet, than I have a bad news for him/her as the events will develope from now on agains his/her wishes. |
QUOTE (howe6079 @ 25-Jan 05, 3:42 PM) |
Homosexuality cannot produce children, is not an ideal environment to raise children, and therefore is not intended by evolution, for evolution is based completely on reproduction. |
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You don't see somebody who has his hair or beard trimmed being forbidden to marry someone. |
First off, I would like to thank howe for having the courage to state his views as they really are. This debate will rage for years because of what it really is. The argument is, in reality, the beliefs of men versus the statutes of the Bible(at least in America). Howe, by virtue of what he believes, cannot possibly except homosexual marriage as right, or even acceptable. If you feel that homosexuality is sin in the eyes of God, then you cannot be tolerant of it. Its unfair to assassinate some ones opinion as skewed because it is based on religion. They can no more "get over it" than I can get over my beliefs. My opinion is based on the ideals that being gay harms no one, and that marriage can still be defined as between two people with no sex being defined. That would prevent problems with multiple spouses. I am not sure that was ever even a real threat to our society. Allowing gay marriage certainly is not leading down a path to allow incest. Gay marriage doesn't allow under age minors to me exploited in any way. Incest and exploitation of minors has been used for a while in an argument against gays. There is no need to link being gay to every kind of sexual perversion known to man. They all come from different situations that create them. The argument is what it is, do you believe the Bible. or do you follow a different creed? I don't follow the Bible, so I find nothing wrong with gay marriage. Howe specifically stated that his beliefs are based on Gods law. I can sincerely respect that.
Well, the aspects about incest don't necessarily have to do with underage sexual activities.
If homosexual marriage is allowed - which is a huge change from the thousands-year-old definition of marriage, then all of the social constraints against plural marriage, incestuous marriage, and a host of other "different" marriage customs become moot.
If it is ok for two men to get married, as they are homosexual, then is there any reason that two brothers (same mother and father) shouldn't get married? If so, why not? If two brothers can get married, why not a brother and a sister? We have already come to the conclusion that anyone who is in love should be allowed to get married, despite thousands of years of social proscriptions against those forms. Remember, the ability, inability, or any other aspect of procreation CANNOT be used as an argument in this discussion. The pro-gay marriage stance specifically states this.
Later on, there will be those (currently most active in the homosexual community) that will argue that children have the rights and abilities to decide for themselves whether or not they want to have sexual relations and to get married. Thus a time could easily come when the same arguments that have successfully degraded the marriage definitions will be used to allow ever lower ages of consent. When I was a youth, it was 18. Now it is 16 in most states. Why not 14, 12, 10? There are organized groups out there arguing for this very thing, right now.
What about the guy who really, really loves his dog? The arguments about procreation don't have ANY relevance to this part of the discussion. Will society allow him to marry his dog, and provide legal protections? Again, there are organized groups out there that would push for this status change.
Yes, slippery-slope arguments can be shaky. However, we have already seen this argument gaining ground in the US, today. And none of the arguments that I have presented have anything at all to do with religion.
QUOTE (Nighthawk @ 26-Jan 05, 12:20 PM) |
Thus a time could easily come when the same arguments that have successfully degraded the marriage definitions will be used to allow ever lower ages of consent. When I was a youth, it was 18. Now it is 16 in most states. Why not 14, 12, 10? |
There are some countries today where same-sex marriages are already legal, Germany for example. It has now been legal for almost 4 years and none of the things Nighthawk mentioned have occured.