I won't be surprised if the polygamy request gets dismissed out of hand. The same thing happened to same sex partners immediately after the courts declared multiracial marriages to be legal. It took about 50 year, but here we are. Polygamy is coming, probably in my lifetime, certainly in my kids'.
1. Burning any yeast or honey in offerings to God (2:11) [Normal penalty.]
2. Failing to include salt in offerings to God(2:13) [Normal penalty.]
3. Eating fat (3:17) [That one’s “a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.” All fat is to be saved for offerings to God. Normal penalty.]
4. Eating blood (3:17) [Normal penalty]
5. Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve witnessed (5:1) [“They will be held responsible.”]
6. Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve been told about (5:1) [Which sounds like hearsay. At any rate, “they shall be held responsible.”]
7. Touching an unclean animal (5:2) [NIV translates this as touching “the carcass” of an unclean animal. So if Rover dies, or you’re a worker in a pork plant, you’re in trouble here. Normal penalty.]
8. Carelessly making an oath (5:4) [Even if you don’t realize you have. Normal penalty.]
9. Deceiving a neighbour about something trusted to them (6:2) [Return the item and a 20% penalty, plus normal penalty.]
10. Finding lost property and lying about it (6:3) [Return the item and a 20% penalty, plus normal penalty.]
11. Bringing unauthorised fire before God (10:1) [God will smite you.]
12. Letting your hair become unkempt (10:6) [“You will die” and God will be angry at everyone. May only apply to the priesthood.]
13. Tearing your clothes (10:6) [“You will die” and God will be angry at everyone. May only apply to the priesthood.]
14. Drinking alcohol in holy places (bit of a problem for Catholics, this ‘un) (10:9) [“You will die.” May only apply to the priesthood.]
15. Eating an animal which doesn’t both chew cud and has a divided hoof (cf: camel, rabbit, pig) (11:4-7) [“You will be unclean.]
16. Touching the carcass of any of the above (problems here for rugby) (11:8) [“You will be unclean.”]
17. Eating – or touching the carcass of – any seafood without fins or scales (11:10-12) [“You will be unclean.”]
18. Eating – or touching the carcass of – eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. (11:13-19) [“You will be unclean.”]
19. Eating – or touching the carcass of – flying insects with four legs, unless those legs are jointed (11:20-22) [“You will be unclean.”]
20. Eating any animal which walks on all four and has paws (good news for cats) (11:27) [“You will be unclean.” Also applies to touching their carcasses.]
21. Eating – or touching the carcass of – the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard,the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon (11:29) [“You will be unclean.”]
22. Eating – or touching the carcass of – any creature which crawls on many legs, or its belly (11:41-42) [“You will be unclean.”]
23. Going to church within 33 days after giving birth to a boy (12:4) [Actually, she’s unclean a week, and then another 33 days. Then she has to offer up a sacrifice.]
24. Going to church within 66 days after giving birth to a girl (12:5) [Actually, she’s unclean a week, and then another 66 days. Then she has to offer up a sacrifice.]
25. Having sex with your mother (18:7) [The penalty for all the sexual sins in ch. 18 is that the participants are to be “cut off” from their people. Some have additional penalties mentioned below.]
26. Having sex with your father’s wife (18:8) [In 20:11, both are to be put to death.]
27. Having sex with your sister (18:9) [In 20:17, if you marry her, both are to be “publicly removed from their people”]
28. Having sex with your granddaughter (18:10)
29. Having sex with your half-sister (18:11)
30. Having sex with your biological aunt (18:12-13) [In 20:19, he will be held responsible for the dishonor.]
31. Having sex with your uncle’s wife (18:14) [In 20:20, they are held responsible for the dishonor, “they will die childless”]
32. Having sex with your daughter-in-law (18:15) [In 20:12, both are to be put to death.]
33. Having sex with your sister-in-law (18:16) [In 20:21, if you marry her, “they will be childless.”]
34. Having sex with a woman and also having sex with her daughter or granddaughter (bad news for Alan Clark) (18:17) [No specific penalty given, but per 20:14 if you marry both of them, all three of you are to be “burned in fire.”]
35. Marrying your wife’s sister while your wife still lives (18:18)
36. Having sex with a woman during her period (18:19) [15:24 simply says the man will be considered unclean for 7 days. In 20:18, “Both of them are to be cut off from their people”]
37. Having sex with your neighbour’s wife (18:20) [In 20:10, both are to be put to death.]
38. Giving your children to be sacrificed to Molek (18:21) [In 20:2, the person is to be stoned to death.]
39. Having sex with a man “as one does with a woman” (18:22) [In 20:13, both are to be put to death.]
40. Having sex with an animal (18:23) [In 20:15, both are to be killed.]
41. Making idols or “metal gods” (19:4) [No penalty given.]
42. Reaping to the very edges of a field (19:9) [To be left for the poor. No penalty given.]
43. Picking up grapes that have fallen in your vineyard (19:10) [To be left for the poor. No penalty given.]
44. Stealing (19:11) [No penalty given.]
45. Lying (19:11) [No penalty given.]
46. Swearing falsely on God’s name (19:12) [No penalty given.]
47. Defrauding your neighbour (19:13) [No penalty given.]
48. Holding back the wages of an employee overnight (not well observed these days) (19:13) [No penalty given.]
49. Cursing the deaf or abusing the blind (19:14) [No penalty given.]
50. Perverting justice, showing partiality to either the poor or the rich (19:15) [No penalty given.]
51. Spreading slander (19:16) [No penalty given.]
52. Doing anything to endanger a neighbour’s life (19:16) [No penalty given.]
53. Seeking revenge or bearing a grudge (19:18) [No penalty given.]
54. Mixing fabrics in clothing (19:19) [No penalty given.]
55. Cross-breeding animals (19:19) [No penalty given.]
56. Planting different seeds in the same field (19:19) [No penalty given.]
57. Sleeping with another man’s slave (19:20) [“Due punishment,” but not death, just a ram for sacrifice.]
58. Eating fruit from a tree within four years of planting it (19:23) [No penalty given. May only apply to fruit trees planted in Israel.]
59. Practising divination or seeking omens (tut, tut astrology) (19:26) [No penalty, but in 20:6 they will be “cut off from their people” by God. In 20:27, they are to be stoned to death.]
60. Trimming your beard (19:27) [No penalty given.]
61. Cutting your hair at the sides (19:27) [No penalty given.]
62. Getting tattoos (19:28) [No penalty given.]
63. Making your daughter prostitute herself (19:29) [“The land will turn to prostitution.” No other penalty given.]
64. Turning to mediums or spiritualists (19:31) [No penalty given.]
65. Not standing in the presence of the elderly (19:32) [No penalty given.]
66. Mistreating foreigners – “the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born” (19:33-34) [No penalty given.]
67. Using dishonest weights and scales (19:35-36) [No penalty given.]
68. Cursing your father or mother (punishable by death) (20:9) [Death, as noted.]
69. Marrying a prostitute, divorcee or widow if you are a priest (21:7,13) [No penalty given.]
70. Entering a place where there’s a dead body as a priest (21:11) [I.e., if you’re a priest. No penalty given.]
71. Slaughtering a cow/sheep and its young on the same day (22:28) [May apply only to sacrificial animals. No penalty given.]
72. Working on the Sabbath (23:3) [No penalty given.]
73. Blasphemy (punishable by stoning to death) (24:14) [Death.]
74. Inflicting an injury; killing someone else’s animal; killing a person must be punished in kind (24:17-22) [Killing someone means death. Injuring someone mean punishment in kind. Killing or injuring another’s animal means punishment in kind.]
75. Selling land permanently (25:23) [No penalty given.]
76. Selling an Israelite as a slave (foreigners are fine) (25:42) [No penalty given.]
1. Burning any yeast or honey in offerings to God (2:11) [Normal penalty.]
2. Failing to include salt in offerings to God(2:13) [Normal penalty.]
3. Eating fat (3:17) [That one’s “a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.” All fat is to be saved for offerings to God. Normal penalty.]
4. Eating blood (3:17) [Normal penalty]
5. Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve witnessed (5:1) [“They will be held responsible.”]
6. Failing to testify against any wrongdoing you’ve been told about (5:1) [Which sounds like hearsay. At any rate, “they shall be held responsible.”]
7. Touching an unclean animal (5:2) [NIV translates this as touching “the carcass” of an unclean animal. So if Rover dies, or you’re a worker in a pork plant, you’re in trouble here. Normal penalty.]
8. Carelessly making an oath (5:4) [Even if you don’t realize you have. Normal penalty.]
9. Deceiving a neighbour about something trusted to them (6:2) [Return the item and a 20% penalty, plus normal penalty.]
10. Finding lost property and lying about it (6:3) [Return the item and a 20% penalty, plus normal penalty.]
11. Bringing unauthorised fire before God (10:1) [God will smite you.]
12. Letting your hair become unkempt (10:6) [“You will die” and God will be angry at everyone. May only apply to the priesthood.]
13. Tearing your clothes (10:6) [“You will die” and God will be angry at everyone. May only apply to the priesthood.]
14. Drinking alcohol in holy places (bit of a problem for Catholics, this ‘un) (10:9) [“You will die.” May only apply to the priesthood.]
15. Eating an animal which doesn’t both chew cud and has a divided hoof (cf: camel, rabbit, pig) (11:4-7) [“You will be unclean.]
16. Touching the carcass of any of the above (problems here for rugby) (11:8) [“You will be unclean.”]
17. Eating – or touching the carcass of – any seafood without fins or scales (11:10-12) [“You will be unclean.”]
18. Eating – or touching the carcass of – eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, any kind of black kite, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. (11:13-19) [“You will be unclean.”]
19. Eating – or touching the carcass of – flying insects with four legs, unless those legs are jointed (11:20-22) [“You will be unclean.”]
20. Eating any animal which walks on all four and has paws (good news for cats) (11:27) [“You will be unclean.” Also applies to touching their carcasses.]
21. Eating – or touching the carcass of – the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard,the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon (11:29) [“You will be unclean.”]
22. Eating – or touching the carcass of – any creature which crawls on many legs, or its belly (11:41-42) [“You will be unclean.”]
23. Going to church within 33 days after giving birth to a boy (12:4) [Actually, she’s unclean a week, and then another 33 days. Then she has to offer up a sacrifice.]
24. Going to church within 66 days after giving birth to a girl (12:5) [Actually, she’s unclean a week, and then another 66 days. Then she has to offer up a sacrifice.]
25. Having sex with your mother (18:7) [The penalty for all the sexual sins in ch. 18 is that the participants are to be “cut off” from their people. Some have additional penalties mentioned below.]
26. Having sex with your father’s wife (18:8) [In 20:11, both are to be put to death.]
27. Having sex with your sister (18:9) [In 20:17, if you marry her, both are to be “publicly removed from their people”]
28. Having sex with your granddaughter (18:10)
29. Having sex with your half-sister (18:11)
30. Having sex with your biological aunt (18:12-13) [In 20:19, he will be held responsible for the dishonor.]
31. Having sex with your uncle’s wife (18:14) [In 20:20, they are held responsible for the dishonor, “they will die childless”]
32. Having sex with your daughter-in-law (18:15) [In 20:12, both are to be put to death.]
33. Having sex with your sister-in-law (18:16) [In 20:21, if you marry her, “they will be childless.”]
34. Having sex with a woman and also having sex with her daughter or granddaughter (bad news for Alan Clark) (18:17) [No specific penalty given, but per 20:14 if you marry both of them, all three of you are to be “burned in fire.”]
35. Marrying your wife’s sister while your wife still lives (18:18)
36. Having sex with a woman during her period (18:19) [15:24 simply says the man will be considered unclean for 7 days. In 20:18, “Both of them are to be cut off from their people”]
37. Having sex with your neighbour’s wife (18:20) [In 20:10, both are to be put to death.]
38. Giving your children to be sacrificed to Molek (18:21) [In 20:2, the person is to be stoned to death.]
39. Having sex with a man “as one does with a woman” (18:22) [In 20:13, both are to be put to death.]
40. Having sex with an animal (18:23) [In 20:15, both are to be killed.]
41. Making idols or “metal gods” (19:4) [No penalty given.]
42. Reaping to the very edges of a field (19:9) [To be left for the poor. No penalty given.]
43. Picking up grapes that have fallen in your vineyard (19:10) [To be left for the poor. No penalty given.]
44. Stealing (19:11) [No penalty given.]
45. Lying (19:11) [No penalty given.]
46. Swearing falsely on God’s name (19:12) [No penalty given.]
47. Defrauding your neighbour (19:13) [No penalty given.]
48. Holding back the wages of an employee overnight (not well observed these days) (19:13) [No penalty given.]
49. Cursing the deaf or abusing the blind (19:14) [No penalty given.]
50. Perverting justice, showing partiality to either the poor or the rich (19:15) [No penalty given.]
51. Spreading slander (19:16) [No penalty given.]
52. Doing anything to endanger a neighbour’s life (19:16) [No penalty given.]
53. Seeking revenge or bearing a grudge (19:18) [No penalty given.]
54. Mixing fabrics in clothing (19:19) [No penalty given.]
55. Cross-breeding animals (19:19) [No penalty given.]
56. Planting different seeds in the same field (19:19) [No penalty given.]
57. Sleeping with another man’s slave (19:20) [“Due punishment,” but not death, just a ram for sacrifice.]
58. Eating fruit from a tree within four years of planting it (19:23) [No penalty given. May only apply to fruit trees planted in Israel.]
59. Practising divination or seeking omens (tut, tut astrology) (19:26) [No penalty, but in 20:6 they will be “cut off from their people” by God. In 20:27, they are to be stoned to death.]
60. Trimming your beard (19:27) [No penalty given.]
61. Cutting your hair at the sides (19:27) [No penalty given.]
62. Getting tattoos (19:28) [No penalty given.]
63. Making your daughter prostitute herself (19:29) [“The land will turn to prostitution.” No other penalty given.]
64. Turning to mediums or spiritualists (19:31) [No penalty given.]
65. Not standing in the presence of the elderly (19:32) [No penalty given.]
66. Mistreating foreigners – “the foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born” (19:33-34) [No penalty given.]
67. Using dishonest weights and scales (19:35-36) [No penalty given.]
68. Cursing your father or mother (punishable by death) (20:9) [Death, as noted.]
69. Marrying a prostitute, divorcee or widow if you are a priest (21:7,13) [No penalty given.]
70. Entering a place where there’s a dead body as a priest (21:11) [I.e., if you’re a priest. No penalty given.]
71. Slaughtering a cow/sheep and its young on the same day (22:28) [May apply only to sacrificial animals. No penalty given.]
72. Working on the Sabbath (23:3) [No penalty given.]
73. Blasphemy (punishable by stoning to death) (24:14) [Death.]
74. Inflicting an injury; killing someone else’s animal; killing a person must be punished in kind (24:17-22) [Killing someone means death. Injuring someone mean punishment in kind. Killing or injuring another’s animal means punishment in kind.]
75. Selling land permanently (25:23) [No penalty given.]
76. Selling an Israelite as a slave (foreigners are fine) (25:42) [No penalty given.]
As far as people's relationships are concerned, it is none of my business as long as they are consenting adults. However, there are only some relationships that are recognized by the State and given special status- such as marriages and business partnerships. It's important that those relationships are clearly defined and regulated to prevent people form trying to take advantage of the system and also to promote a stable society. The family is one of the most basic units of a society. In general, strong families come from strong marriages, so it's in the State's best interest to sanction stable relationships that will keep the society and economy most stable. There are moral arguments too, of course, but the State is less concerned about that unless is affects stability.
As to the rest, that's an excellent question, but we're getting into theology now, just to warn you. Not all Christians agree on this, but here's the best answer that I've found that makes the most sense to me.
There's a difference between moral law and ceremonial law.
Moral laws are timeless. They are largely based on basic understanding of morality and most people find them to be based on common sense, although they may disagree about how bad it actually is. In other words, they tend to make sense and be based on some form of logic.
Ceremonial laws are rules that were given specifically to the nation of Israel in their early history for a few reasons. 1. To set the apart and establish culture. God was trying to establish them as His chosen people, so He put certain rules on them to mark them, set them apart, and cause other nations to wonder. 2. To keep them safe. Some of the rules were established for hygiene purposes or prevent the spread of disease. Some ceremonial rules, like circumcision, did both of those at the same time.
So the question becomes how do we separate these two in a manner that isn't arbitrary or simply taken as a convenient way to ignore laws that we don't like. One of the quickest ways is to take the last five Ten Commandments as the basis for the laws. Pretty much every moral law is in direct support of Ten Commandments 5-10. These commandments are: 5. Honor your parents, 6. Don't murder, 7. Don't commit adultery, 8. Don't steal, 9. Don't lie, 10. Don't covet. Those commands define our relationships with other people and are accepted as basic morality by a large amount of cultures. The Ten Commandments didn't invent this morality, it just codified it for the Israelites. Secular societies often uphold these values in their laws. Not because the 10 Commandments say so, it's just common sense and good for society.
Th first four Commandments (1. Put God first, 2. Don't make idols, 3. Don't take God's name in vain, 4. Honor the Sabbath) govern how mankind is supposed to relate to God. They really have no bearing on anyone that doesn't know God or don't want to know God. They only matter to those who care, and secular governement generally doesn't make laws supporting them, unless they are a theocracy of some sort. Some laws, like those limiting the work week or setting limits on labor could be seen as support for a day of rest (Sabbath), but that's kind of a stretch.
Alright, so now we can go through that big list you posted and ask "1. Is this rule upholding a basic moral principle from commandment 5-10, 2. is this related to commandment 1-4, or 3. is this a cultural/hygiene thing?" Most will fall quite logically into one of those three categories. Those that fall into category 1 apply to everyone, whether they like it or not. Those in 2 would apply to those who, like me, are wanting to establish a favorable relationship with God. Those in 3 would no longer apply to anyone other than some one who wants to live like it's still several hundred years B.C., or maybe some very strict form of Judaism.
If you want to discuss one that doesn't seem obvious, I'd be happy to discuss it with you.
tr1age - This probly needs to have it's own thread since we're straying from the original topic here.
I won't be surprised if the polygamy request gets dismissed out of hand. The same thing happened to same sex partners immediately after the courts declared multiracial marriages to be legal. It took about 50 year, but here we are. Polygamy is coming, probably in my lifetime, certainly in my kids'.
If anything CNN put out there mattered it would be a news network. This is like quoting something from yahoo answers on a thesis paper. Every time I come back from overseas I lol when seeing all the people glued to anything on CNN as if it was consequential.
People are always pushing the law and seeking the right to do something which has no ground. Polygamy is not a case of discrimination, this is a case of being outside the set definition of marriage. Remember the core argument was not to redefine the states interpretation of what a marriage is, but of what constitutes where the states can discriminate on what a "person" was when saying "a union between two people" There's no legal way to say two = three. There is a legal way to say two people can be two men or two women. The fundamental idea of marriage is a union of a couple.
The whole basis for the ruling was not about states right to set it's own laws it was about equal protection under the law and how a persons choice of which sex to marry is no different than what races are allowed to legally marry. The supreme court did nothing except for clearly define that restricting the sex of spouses was not legal under the constitution of the united states which states have agreed to uphold.
Oh and also, I don't remember any of the hell and apecrap stupid that the southerners talked about happening after interracial marriages were legalized. While you may not see it, this is not helping the church on its mission to get all up in government. To be honest it's a very good wake up call for the rational people on why our nation was founded on the stalwart separation of the two. I just wish the 1950's generation had been a bit more separatist when it came to religion and government because they set in motion some really scary precedents.
For anyone who wants to rand on the stupidity and self-defeating nature of religious doctrine: Don't, it only hurts your brains. There's no point trying to get people who have pure faith to see anything else, that's why the greatest oxymoron in history has existed for all of monotheistic history: Holy Wars
Gay marriage = the right to have you partner next to you in the hospital instead of your parents who disowned you years before making decisions for you based on their beliefs not yours.
However, there are only some relationships that are recognized by the State and given special status- such as marriages and business partnerships. It's important that those relationships are clearly defined and regulated to prevent people form trying to take advantage of the system and also to promote a stable society.
olygamy is not a case of discrimination, this is a case of being outside the set definition of marriage. Remember the core argument was not to redefine the states interpretation of what a marriage is, but of what constitutes where the states can discriminate on what a "person" was when saying "a union between two people"
The reason why marriages get special treatment in the first place, is because it produces something that the state really likes: Workforce.
Back in the day where the laws about marriage where introduced, being married meant having and raising kids some time down the road.
Today a lot of people get married to take advantage of the tax breaks, but never have kids. This is the biggest flaw the law has in my opinion.
What I propose is, that you only get tax breaks if you have\adopt kids and can prove that you raise them properly. This is very difficult to control, I fully understand, but that would be the only fair way of dealing with it.
Now whether the marriage is between man and woman or 15 people or whatever wouldn`t matter in my case, as it's all about how many kids you raise properly.
Have you ever wondered where moral laws come from? There once was a prophet called Zoroaster who had a big following who preached:
1. Everybody can choose what to do.
2. Everybody has a moral compass build in and follow his compass.
Later a group of people sat together and discussed the second point. They came up with a much better way of describing 2. Instead of saying that everybody has a compass, how about saying that there is a god that has full control about what is moral and immoral? This is the basis of most current monotheistic religions today.
And I agree that the last 5 commandments cover things that are in most laws. But what makes them different from other commandments? For example here are the 11 commandments of satanism (I just picked these, because satanism is apparently evil):
Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.
Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.
When in another’s lair, show him respect or else do not go there.
If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.
Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.
Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.\
Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.
Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.
Do not harm little children.
Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.
When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.
Now one could argue that commandments like Nr. 5 or 9. or 10 are missing in the 10 commandmends. There is no word on sexual advances. There is also no word on hurting people \ animals (just killing).
But all of these are present in the law today. And they are sensible and moral (at least in my opinion) even without being mentioned in the Bible.
I will moderately disagree on the commandment 5 Honor your parents. If you have shit parents, then you should not need to honor them.
I rarely get the chance to discuss stuff like this, so I quite enjoy seeing the other side of the story.
If you figure something out and want to show other people how it works, if you dumb it down far enough, nothing will be left of it. What is left of an "idea" if you always water the original idea down, to accommodate others?
I think the main point you were making there is that there's more than one place that some one can go to find a basis for morality. I agree. I was focused on a Biblical/Christian viewpoint since you questioned how all those Old Testament laws get sorted out. Obviously, I'm not going to use a secular or satanic reference point for that.
As far as Zoroaster and other ancient philosophers, they didn't invent the idea of a god, they just discovered one of the universe's most basic moral principles. The idea of a built-in moral compass works well with the Biblical idea that we are created in God's image. The ability to perceive right and wrong is an important balance of our free will. Freud described it as the super-ego, and the sin nature as the id. Since the principles of morality are a foundation of creation, it's only natural that they would be noticed by many people throughout history.
It's also natural that many would then realize that morality needs a fixed point in order to be truly meaningful. If everyone can simply choose their own morality and that becomes their personal right and wrong, then it becomes very difficult for society to exist. For that reason, people organized themselves into governments and set up authority figures. But even the highest authority figure can be immoral, so people realized that there must be an Ultimate Authority that holds the standard to hold everyone accountable. It's a pretty logical chain of events with no Bible or angelic intervention required. All of creation screams the existence of a Supreme Being; that's why pretty much every culture developed religion. From there it's just a matter of discovering the nature of God. Is there one God, or tons of them? Does He love us or hate us? Does He care about us at all? Religions run the entirety of that spectrum. People gravitate towards the one they were brought up in or makes the most sense to them. Which leads some to reject religion entirely, which of course restarts the debate about the nature and origin of morality.
Sorry for the ramble, that's just my take on philosophy.
And then I think religions were formed to cope with death. We being the only living being aware of their immortality needed something to make it seem worth it.
People gravitate towards the one they were brought up in or makes the most sense to them. Which leads some to reject religion entirely, which of course restarts the debate about the nature and origin of morality.
Which isn't incompatible with a Supreme Being. Evolution becomes a lot more likely if it was guided.
And then I think religions were formed to cope with death. We being the only living being aware of their immortality needed something to make it seem worth it.
I think you meant "mortality", but I'd agree. And stuff in general that's hard to explain or deal with. A lot of people end up turning to God in times of trouble, and then discover that He's actually pretty good during the good times, too.
I know many people who the belief in one god or another has helped them immensely so I am not against it. It is when someone "accepts" someone but still thinks they will burn in damnation, is when I get bothered.
This is actually a interesting thing, because I am not 100% sure about evolution, even as a scientist. I agree with the general idea, but the "between" steps seem very unlogical for me. For example when fish went on to become reptilians and started to grow legs. The first "small" legs were more of a hinderance than an advantage so they would have been sorted out. This can be solved by 2 ways:
1. As plants started to grow on land, some bacteria did the same mutations as they did in the water and these turned into reptilians.
2. The legs were more of tendrils to catch stuff and over time they turned into legs.
Both seem to be unlikely in my opinion, so there is that.
This is actually a interesting thing, because I am not 100% sure about evolution, even as a scientist. I agree with the general idea, but the "between" steps seem very unlogical for me. For example when fish went on to become reptilians and started to grow legs. The first "small" legs were more of a hinderance than an advantage so they would have been sorted out. This can be solved by 2 ways:
1. As plants started to grow on land, some bacteria did the same mutations as they did in the water and these turned into reptilians.
2. The legs were more of tendrils to catch stuff and over time they turned into legs.
Both seem to be unlikely in my opinion, so there is that.
Personally, I'm still a literal 6-day creationist. It's Occam's Razor for me. It's simple and seems to cover all the bases although it does require a lot really smart people to be completely wrong. I've adopted the stance that I'm willing to be wrong about it, and I don't care enough to completely invalidate myself.
I used to be vehemently anti-evolution. At my Christian school, evolution was only discussed to make fun of it and was never seriously regarded. I knew just enough to make me sound stupid to anyone that had actually studied the theory. As an adult, I learned more about it and came to realize that you don't have to be a complete idiot to accept evolution as a viable theory. Also, I've met many Christians that I respect that accept evolution as the mechanism that God used to create. They make a good case for it without compromising scripture or science, so I'm willing to accept it as a possibility. Luckily, my faith doesn't stand or fall on the point.
The calm answer to the question, 'If gay people can get married, what about polygamy?'
Looking for a reasonable response to people who freak out about gay people getting married? Here's one.
I don't know if you heard, but gay people can now get legally married across the entire United States.
As of this moment, weeks after the ruling, with gay people getting married all over the country, I have noticed no change in my straight marriage. My wife has not divorced me because other people are now allowed to copy our totally original idea of legally becoming one entity for tax purposes and celebrating our perfect* love with the world. (*She would argue that maybe it's not perfect.)
Most people were pretty happy when they learned about it. Some people weren't. Some responded with, "Polygamy is gonna become law now," which seems to me to be a bit of an exaggeration. Who made that argument?
Apparently, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts thought that could happen.
He had this to say in his strongly worded dissent of the ruling.
So how do you respond when someone says, "If gay marriage, why not polygamy?"
John Corvino, chair of the Department of Philosophy at Wayne State University, is here to address the arguments of those who aren't happy.
They are totally different things to argue about.
People who like to ride down slippery-slope arguments tend to say stuff like: "What about incest? What about bestiality? What about polygamy?"
Let's get the insane ones out of the way first. Incest and bestiality.
Incest and bestiality are forms of abuse. They are perpetrated by people who are straight and gay. Sexual orientation has no relevance to abuse.
And I'm pretty sure you can't get consent from a kitchen appliance.
Which leaves just polygamy.
I didn't know that much about polygamy. So I looked it up. There are actually multiple sub-forms of polygamy.
Polygamy has its own set of issues to deal with and lends itself to abusive practices. It's rarely truly consensual. Polygamy isn't an equal-opportunity thing in the cultures where it's practiced, for the most part. It tends to be something where multiple women are subjugated and married to one man.
As Jon states, polygyny is one man, multiple wives. The vast majority of cultures that allow polygamy act in this way. Women tend to be subjugated, and poor men tend to become unmarriageable. Meanwhile, rich men tend to collect wives as trophies, and this tends to make things worse for society.
When you have one wife and multiple husbands, it's called polyandry. This is exceedingly rare and generally happens in cultures where brothers both marry the same woman because there's a high risk of male death and they want their lineage to continue.
Lastly, there is also group marriage between multiple men and multiple women. This one is the least problematic regarding the persecution of women, but also the least common. They'll have to speak for themselves.
Ergo, polygamy has nothing to do with two consenting adults committing to each other for life.
The next time someone asks you about the slippery slope, you'll know what to respond with.
But I see your point considering your beliefs.
