Simple question?

Quote: Nareed

Well, let's see: straight couples have no need to manage property or provide for their children. They don't engage in intimate activities to strengthen their romantic bond. They are not concerned with inheritance, medical emergencies involving their spouse, or the sudden death of a spouse. You're absolutely right. There is no reason to apply marriage to straight couples.

Oh, wait. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe straight couples do all the same things same-sex couples do, and should be allowed to marry.

I don't think anyone was saying they are not similar. Men and women are very similar too are they not? Yet there are real differences that should be respected, hence we use different words, wear different clothes, etc., etc. By the way you kind of overlooked a pretty fundamental aspect of marriage and why it has been important for humanity and society throughout our history and that is the fact that heterosexual couples can have children and raise these children with a biological mother and father. This is important. It is not to say that homosexual couples cannot raise children or that single parents can't also do a great job, but this is not the same as what Marriage alone can provide.

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Well, I'm sorry about that, but it's how things are. It's so unnatural to believe in one abstract god, is it not? You don't do sacrifices, your offerings barely qualify as such, you look for answers in a book. It's all so ludicrous and do far removed from real religion, that it cannot possibly be anything other than a cult.

Can you explain why this is unnatural? Is there something in the way we are wired or in our physical bodies that shows us that it is unnatural to believe in one God and find answers in sacred writings?

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Sure, you can call your cult whatever the hell you want. What do I care?

Good if religion is already taken and means something different, we will be happy to call ourselves Christians. As long as we have equal protection under the law I rather prefer to not be called the same thing as something that I see as very different. This would avoid confusion and make it easier for everyone to understand the real differences yet the relatedness between what you call religion and Christianity. Thank you.

Quote: Nareed

It is so reasonable and necessary, that every airline does it.

Next you'll be asking whether it's reasonable to suppose an airline would be concerned about protecting their HUGE capital investments on planes by actually hiring and training qualified pilots.

Okay so we shift the object of our faith to big airline companies. I actually feel a little less confident in my faith in corporations, I would prefer to interview the pilots myself if I really want to lessen the amount of faith required.

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Only by starting with the assumption that people are insignificant, ignorant savages capable of nothing but sloth and violence on their own, does faith ever become a psychological necessity.

Where did this come from? The exact opposite is true. The fact is we are all made in the image and likeness of God and filled with so much goodness and potential that we can indeed have faith in each other and trust each other. It is people who belittle faith or say that we should test and verify everything that are the true enemies of humanity and must assume that there is no truth or goodness unless it can be verified. This is death to relationships and society in general. Everything we do is ultimately grounded on faith as a beautiful necessity.

Quote: FrGamble

By the way you kind of overlooked a pretty fundamental aspect of marriage and why it has been important for humanity and society throughout our history and that is the fact that heterosexual couples can have children and raise these children with a biological mother and father.

Some of them can. Why should marriage be available to the infertile, if the whole purpose is reproduction?

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Can you explain why this is unnatural?

It's so unnatural that nominally monotheistic cults tend to deify objects, dead people and even to multiply the "aspects" of their "one" god.

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Good if religion is already taken and means something different, we will be happy to call ourselves Christians. As long as we have equal protection under the law I rather prefer to not be called the same thing as something that I see as very different.

Of course you'll have equal protection.

But you won't be allowed to be tax-exempt, as that applies to religion and not cults. You also cannot perform valid marriages because you're a cult.

See, in the beginning these distinctions weren't there. But as a cult is not a religion, naturally some difference sin the application of the law were necessary, in order to protect religion.

But don't worry. You're equal, only separate.

Quote: FrGamble

Where did this come from?

You.

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The exact opposite is true. The fact is we are all made in the image and likeness of God and filled with so much goodness and potential that we can indeed have faith in each other and trust each other.

What you're saying is without "god" we're less than nothing. No better and no more capable than animals. We need "god" in order to ascend above our natural station.

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It is people who belittle faith or say that we should test and verify everything that are the true enemies of humanity

I suppose then your list of greatest enemies of humanity includes people like Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Archimedes, Euclid, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Fleming, Max Plank, Enrico Fermi, etc.

Quote: Nareed

It is so reasonable and necessary, that every airline does it.
.

My son got a pilot job with AA 2 years ago.
He went thru no less than three interviews.
He had to supply his military and school
records, which were double checked by the
airline. He had airline classes to attend, tests
to take, long sessions in a simulator to find
out how well he could fly a jumbo jet. He
was vetted completely. Why would FrG assume
they just take a pilots word for it.

When I fly, I trust the airline has done everything
possible to hire pilots who will protect their
expensive equipment and get us where we're
going as safely as possible. I do love to see people
crossing themselves repeatedly on takeoff and
landing. I always think, yeah, that'll work. lol

The thing is, even if we accept, Frgamble's "everything is faith" proposition, he still expects us to consider a claimed resurrection of a crucified man on faith as reasonable to accepting a plane is probably going to fly safely to our destination nearly 100% of the time.. One of those is repeated many times a day, and the other has never been confirmed.

What's reasonable about that?

Does anyone know what Catholics are supposed to celebrate in February 2nd, and how does that relate to January 6th?

Quote: rxwine

The thing is, even if we accept, Frgamble's "everything is faith" proposition, he still expects us to consider a claimed resurrection of a crucified man on faith as reasonable to accepting a plane is probably going to fly safely to our destination nearly 100% of the time.. One of those is repeated many times a day, and the other has never been confirmed.

There's an interpretation of quantum mechanics which holds we always all take all possible routes to move from point A to point B. It's quite esoteric, but with mention of wave functions and such, it can be made to seem plausible, even while it maintains when you move from your desk to your bed, say two feet away, you also travelled through various parallel universes in the process, circled the Earth, went around the Universe, etc.

I say "prove it."

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What's reasonable about that?

My point exactly.

Quote: Nareed

Some of them can. Why should marriage be available to the infertile, if the whole purpose is reproduction?

It surely is not the whole purpose.

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It's so unnatural that nominally monotheistic cults tend to deify objects, dead people and even to multiply the "aspects" of their "one" god.

That does seem unnatural, its a good thing that nothing of what you describe would be even recognizable to a Catholic.

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But don't worry. You're equal, only separate.

Actually what you describe is not equal. Do you deny that things can be different or separate AND equal?

Quote: Nareed

What you're saying is without "god" we're less than nothing. No better and no more capable than animals. We need "god" in order to ascend above our natural station.

No, what I am saying is that our natural station as human beings is to be awesome!

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I suppose then your list of greatest enemies of humanity includes people like Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Archimedes, Euclid, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Fleming, Max Plank, Enrico Fermi, etc.

Do you think any of the amazing men you list would or desired to test and verify everything in their lives? They stood on the shoulders of giants and built higher and stronger foundations partly because they had trust and faith in the brilliant men and women who went before them. The enemies of living a human life would be those who do not trust anything they cannot directly test, examine, and verify before acting on it. You won't find anyone who actually professes this, because like atheism it is impossible to truly live influenced by its ideas.