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Subject: 
Re: Why these news groups were created
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Fri, 24 Sep 2004 15:25:10 GMT
Viewed: 
2048 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jason Coronado wrote:
   In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler wrote:
   In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Jason Coronado wrote:

   i actually grew up in a loving environment that taught me that right and wrong are absolutes and nothing is relative. believing that has kept me out of trouble many times.

Then you’ve been lucky not to have been exposed to reality, since you have been given such an inadequate set of tools for dealing with it.

reality, my good friend, does not always determine what is right and what is wrong. needless to say my children will know about the “reality” of homosexuality sooner than i ever did. but to say that, “homosexuality, kids, is a part of society so that means it is right” is a complete farce. infidelity, abuse, and neglect are all real things that happen to children, but they are clearly wrong (or is it only in the eye of the beholder, as relativism suggests)?

Tell me this: Is an action “right” because God says so, or is it “right” regardless of what God says? If the former, then it’s an arbitrary moral system. If the latter, then God is subordinate to morality and therefore he’s not supreme.

Anyway, you’ve encapsulated my ethical philosophy more or less correctly. There is no evidence to suggest to me that there is any sort of universal “right” and “wrong” or “good” and “evil.” All we have is preference, when you get down to it.

  
   If you are in a position to save either one innocent person or a pair of innocent people from certain death, but you can’t save both the individual and the pair, what do you do? It seems to me that you must make a choice based on the relative value of the one versus the two. How do you make this decision?

understood--to say that “nothing” is relative is an exaggeration on my part. but how does “relative value” apply when someone takes the life of a loved one? is there an absolute right/wrong there?

No. At least, not in a transcendent, truly absolute sense. It may be absolutely repugnant to me, in that I find it to be utterly foul and objectionable, but I’m not sufficiently presumptuous to claim that I know what the absolute right or wrong might be.

   apparently the murderer thinks it’s right where you would obviously think it’s wrong.

That is exactly correct! See? Relativism isn’t that hard to understand. The problem is that many people assume that they see the world from some kind of objective vantage point, allowing them to judge rightness or wrongness in absolute terms. Sorry, but the world just doesn’t work that way.

   homosexuality used to be looked at by the masses as wrong based on what the bible says (sodom and gamorrah). nowadays, it seems to be “right” according to society. where is the line drawn?

There is no line. There is only preference. Christianity used to be condemned (or, frankly, ignored) by the masses, but society changed. Is this example of moral relativsm also anathema to you?

   when does sexual perversion become wrong?

What is sexual perversion? According to what standard?

In my view, sexual pervesion is wrong only when force is exerted against one unwilling party (or more) by another, or when one party (or more) is not able to make decisions on its own behalf. Do I pretend that I have hit on a universal, absolute truth? Certainly not--that would be the height of arrogance!

   is bestiality wrong?

According to what standard? I strongly object to it on personal, aesthetic grounds, but again I don’t pretend to have access to the universal absolute truth on the matter.

   i know of people who want to start an organization which promotes sexual relationships between grown men and boys. is that wrong? if it is, then there’s your absolute. if it isn’t, then we’ve just allowed our sons to be looked at as potential sexual subjects to be prayed upon by child molesters.

Once again, I would strongly object to such an organization, assuming that at least some of the participants are not able to decide on their own behalf.

But do I think that there is some universal, absolute rule declaring “men shalt not fornicate with boys”? No.

  
   In reality, little that is absolute is accessible to us, which is to say that even if something is truly absolute, we as humans aren’t generally qualified to assess it (I am excluding mathematical or Boolean absolutes, which are different from what we’re discussing). We may choose to enshrine certain values or customs as “absolute,” but these aren’t “absolute” in any real sense.

if little is absolute, then there goes our whole legal system.

Our whole legal system is based on tradition and custom, rather than on absolute truths of Right and Wrong.

   what about laws? true, some do change, but some will never change, and if they do (murder, child molestation) it will be to the detriment of society.

This is a false formulation: Laws don’t change, and if they do change, then it’s bad.

And once again you are failing to distinguish between personal or societal preference and true, universal absolute standards of Right and Wrong. Why is it so hard for you to accept that society’s laws and values are simply products of custom and tradition? Why must you appeal to some external agency to provide validity for a societal value system?

   and if values are not absolute, then how do you explain to the child who has been molested by his/her parent that the parent was just “satisfying a sexual urge so it’s o.k”?

First, I wouldn’t pretend that there’s a benevolent father figure watching out for all of us. Second, I would make sure to put the child in contact with a counselor who is qualified to assist in the child’s recovery, rather than pretending that I am emotionally or intellectually qualified to do so on my own. Third, if the child asked me why the adult had acted this way, I would say that the adult suffers from a mental defect causing him or her to act in a way that good people (as defined by society) do not accept.

How would you handle it? Is it better to say “God will punish the molestor” when you have no actual evidence that this is the case? When a child is suffering an emotional trauma, a placebo statement of faith is of little comfort.

  
  
   what bothers me is that not only are homosexuals trying to get the world to accept them, they are practically shoving their lifestyle down our throats.

Again with the mixed metaphors? What is it with homophobes and the need to use “down my throat” and “thrusting in my face” as such common images when discussing homosexuality? Your hot, steamy invective really gets my rhetorical pulse throbbing!

uh...can we please stay on topic?

Hey, you’re the one evoking the naughty imagery.

  
   No one is preventing you from discussing heterosexual things, whatever those may be. When I announced the birth of my son, no militant homosexuals denounced me for proclaiming my heterosexuality. Therefore, there is no compelling reason to prevent people from discussing homosexual things, whatever those may be.

so what things would homosexuals, lesbians, transvestites, transgenders, bi-sexuals discuss with regards to lego?

Do you object to my post in .people to announce the birth of my son? What did that have to do with LEGO? In fact, I specifically referred to clone-brands. Do you propose that announcements regarding one’s life outside of LEGO are verboten in this forum?

If there had been a lugnet.people.births group, I would have posted there in deference to the greater specificity of the group. It is no different for people.lgbt. If someone has something to say that relates to lgbt issues, such as, for instance, the adoption by a gay couple of a baby, then lugnet.people.lgbt sounds like a great place to post it.

   the very title “LGBT” automatically let’s readers know that the men have sex with the men, the women have sex with the women, the bi-sexuals have sex with both, the transvestites love to dress as the opposite sex, and transgenders (i assume they are included as well) surgically altered their genitals so they can have sex with...?

I’ll ignore your cruel caricature of transgenders and write it off as due to your ignorance.

   i don’t belong to a heterosexual club, i belong to a lego club. why do you fail to see the irrelevance between sex and lego?

Why do you pretend that sex must only exist in the bedroom between consenting, married adults? If that’s how your life works, then that’s fine for you. But my value system objects to your need to deny human nature.

  
   Sure it is! And heterosexuality is about sex. Kids are, by definition, about sex, and in many (but certainly not all) ways sex is about kids. What’s your point?

my point, freud, is that we need to not let children into the realm of sexuality because then they feel they need to get involved (teen pregnancies). do you want your son (i assume he is still a child) to participate in sexual acts?

Well, he’s only seven months old, so he hasn’t started dating just yet. As a parent, it is my job to educate him sufficiently so that he is able to make informed choices regarding his sexuality when he decidesd that he is able to make those choices.

   educating children is one thing, but openly discussing the various perversions of sex just confuses children and allows them to seek experimentation. whatever happened to childhood innocence?

Childhood innocence is a post-victorian fiction made popular in the 20th century. Rather than confusing children, openly discussing the various aspects of sex provides children with the tools to make informed decisions. Experimentation is natural and healthy.

   i would always love my children no matter what they do, but i would never accept the deliberate decision to disobey GOD by choosing a lifestyle contrary to what the bible says. cruelty, my friend, is letting children do whatever they want so long as it feels right to them no matter the consequences.

Why is that cruel? Because it conflicts with what you inferred from what read in an ancient book? Oh, come on! Cruelty is forcing a child to reject a natural part of his identity for the sake of pleasing a mythical father figure.

   if you and chris understand that i believe sex is a holy union between a man and a woman consecrated by GOD through marriage, then you must also understand my belief that any sexual act apart from that is a choice.

I accept that you believe this, but I reject your belief as incorrect and contrary to reality.

   GOD did not create humans with the desire for the same sex.

This argument is unconvincing. I see no evidence that god created humans at all, so any statements contigent upon god’s alleged creation are without value.

   if he did, then he wouldn’t say how much he detests it in the bible.

What is your evidence, outside of the bible, that god’s will is accurately recorded in the bible, and that your interpretation of these millennial writings is accurate? Please, don’t appeal to Stroebel, MacDowell, or Lewis for help with your apologetics, either.

   homosexality is not a physiological manifestation, but a psychological one.

What is your evidence, please? Do you propose that everyone who is homosexual is homosexual by choice?

Dave!



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Why these news groups were created
 
(...) reality, my good friend, does not always determine what is right and what is wrong. needless to say my children will know about the "reality" of homosexuality sooner than i ever did. but to say that, "homosexuality, kids, is a part of society (...) (20 years ago, 24-Sep-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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