This week's poll: What is more of a choice, religious belief or sexual orientation?

During the GOP presidential debates, we have been hearing from various candidates about how they'd reinstate "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the military and work on a federal constitutional amendment that would ban same sex marriages.

For many Christians, sexual orientation is a moral issue based on individual choice –and a sinful choice at that that is destroying families and leading to the destruction of America. Some claim that homosexuality can be "cured" or even exorcised.

In this week's poll, we ask what is more of a choice — a person's sexual orientation or a person's religious beliefs.

We only left two answers and welcome comments relevant to the issue, particularly if you cannot decide which is more of a choice. Because of our spam filters, if it is your first time commenting, your comment will be held in the moderation queue. Once it's approved, your future comments will immediately publish so long as they comply with our terms that are briefly stated under the comment box.

http://www.goddiscussion.com/88555/this-weeks-poll-what-is-more-of-a-choice-religious-belief-or-sexual-orientation/

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Poll is at the link.

Abortion a bigger problem than joblessness, says Catholic Church

Cardinal Archbishop Antonio Rouco Varela used an open-air gathering in Madrid's Plaza Colón on Friday to attack the policies of the previous Socialist Party government, calling for a repeal of legislation that provides for abortion on demand, as well as same-sex marriage.

"Life is a sacred right that humans have been given by God," Rouco told the faithful gathered in bright winter sunshine from a stage dominated by a 68-meter-long altar and backed by a 12-meter-high cross.

Rouco railed against the current situation in Spain and Europe, declaring that Christ had lived in times of historic blindness, and that we were now in one of those times.

"The family is under attack in Spain," said the archbishop, who is also the chairman of the Spanish Bishops Conference, insisting that abortion and euthanasia in Europe was a deeper crisis than the economy or politics.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Abortion/bigger/problem/than/joblessness/says/Catholic/Church/elpepueng/20120101elpeng_3/Ten

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An interesting take on Pascal's Wager.

For many, ‘Losing My Religion’ isn’t a song: It’s life

When Ben Helton signed up for an online dating service, under “religion” he called himself “spiritually apathetic.” On Sunday mornings, when Bill Dohm turns his eyes toward heaven, he’s just checking the weather so he can fly his 1946 Aeronca Champ two-seater plane. Helton, 28, and Dohm, 54, aren’t atheists. They simply shrug off God, religion, heaven or the ever-trendy search-for-meaning and/or purpose. Their attitude could be summed up as “So what?”

“The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America is that there are so many people for whom spiritual interest, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal,” said Mark Silk, professor of religion and public life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Clergy and religion experts are dismayed, fearing for souls’ salvation and for the common threads of faith snapping in society. Others see no such dire consequences to a more openly secular America as people not only fess up to being faithless but admit they’re skipping out on spirituality altogether.

Only now, however, are they turning up in the statistical stream. Researchers have begun asking the kind of nuanced questions that reveal just how big the “So What” set might be:

— 44 percent told the 2011 Baylor University Religion Survey they spend no time seeking “eternal wisdom,” and 19 percent said “it’s useless to search for meaning.”

— 46 percent told a 2011 survey by Nashville, Tenn.-based LifeWay Research that they never wonder whether they will go to heaven.

— 28 percent told LifeWay “it’s not a major priority in my life to find my deeper purpose.” And 18 percent scoffed at the idea that God has a purpose or plan for everyone.

— 6.3 percent of Americans turned up on Pew Forum’s 2007 Religious Landscape Survey as totally secular — unconnected to God or a higher power or any religious identity and willing to say religion is not important in their lives.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/for-many-losing-my-religion-isnt-a-song-its-life/2012/01/05/gIQA8V6OdP_story.html

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Interesting. Full story at the link.

The Evangelical Brain Trust

The central question of the culture wars that have raged since the 1970s is not whether abortion is murder or gay marriage a civil right, but whether the Enlightenment was a good thing. Many evangelical Americans think the answer is no, according to “The Anointed,” a field guide to the evangelical experts you haven’t heard of — but should.

Many evangelicals, Randall J. Stephens and Karl W. Giberson say, get their information on dinosaurs and fossils from Ken Ham, an Australian with a bachelor’s degree from the Queensland Institute of Technology. Ham believes human reason should confirm the Bible rather than reinterpret it, and teaches that God created the world a few thousand years ago. His ministry, “Answers in Genesis,” includes a radio program broadcast over more than 1,000 stations, a magazine with a circulation of 70,000 and the ­multimillion-dollar Creation Museum in Kentucky. While other evangelicals — for example Francis Collins, the born-again Christian who runs the National Institutes of Health — offer more nuanced perspectives on science’s relationship to the Bible, Ham commands a far larger audience.

When it comes to history, many evangelicals reject the world-class historians in their own fold — such scholars as Mark Noll and George Marsden, who advocate a balanced account of Christianity’s role in early America — in favor of the amateur David Barton’s evangelical makeover of Washington and Madison.

--snip--

“The Anointed” condemns the current state of evangelical intellectual life, but Stephens and Giberson avoid monolithic stereotypes. They are careful to note that evangelicals disagree wildly among themselves about almost everything. Their interview subjects range from a home-schooled Baptist who has never had a non-Christian friend to academics trained in the Ivy League. Still, a reader of “The Anointed” is likely to conclude that the average evangelical hates the academic establishment almost as much as he loves Jesus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/books/review/the-anointed-evangelical-truth-in-a-secular-age-by-randall-j-stephens-and-karl-w-giberson-book-review.html?_r=2

Scientists Prove That All Religious Books Are Man-Made Nonsense

The following post is a link from a news article. I neither endorse nor condemn this article. I present it as a topic for discussion, nothing more.

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The scientists headed by Doctor Julius Sanreso, welcomed the research findings and said that it would be in the interests of those who believe in such nonsense as organised religion or creationism to accept the fact that religious books were written by men as a control system.

"Just think for one second, if 'God' or a 'messenger of God' had written that particular religious book/bible, how come the writings only occur within a very limited period in human history? Also, consider the fact, that a human writing on a piece of paper, or a few pieces of paper, is not the word of 'God'. If they were really written by a universal God or entity, the books would not be limited to some pre-medievel costume drama but would encompass all universality and science. God would presumably be universal and timeless as well as all-knowing, as is the universe, therefore these man-written books and scriptures, are just that, man-written nonsense used to control men and women thousands of years ago. Why would 'God' write anything anyway? One must consider the fact that, even now, there are religious zealots and ordinary people still entrenched in a control belief system that is so far removed from reality that it borders on madness. There is no rational or scientific way that organised religions can have a modicum of truth or factual reality because of the very reason that these books are entombed in the time that they were written. These books should therefore simply be viewed as limited parables and historical fiction and as a lesson in how millions of people can be easily controlled."

--snip--

The problem for the world's political leaders, is that slowly, humans who were controlled for so many years by fictitious writings, may suddenly lose their controlled 'faith'. This could be quite dangerous, because it would mean that these people would suddenly wake up and realise that they have been fooled for so long by being communally hypnotised.

"We must ensure that the people who have been fooled for so long by fictitious belief systems utilised to control humans do not get too angry when they realise that what they believe in is nonsense written by humans. This could be dangerous for society, so we must either let them carry on believing their fiction or try to somehow support them when they realise the truth," Dr Sanreso said.

The research paper will be published in its entirety in 2015.

http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/index.php?news=3102

2012 Presidential Candidate Scorecard

In 2012, voters will make a decision that will have a profound effect on our country: who will lead America through the year 2016. During a time when secular values are under constant attack by many religious leaders and political candidates, the Secular Coalition for America presents the 2012 Presidential Candidate Scorecard. This card reviews each of the major candidates in both the Democratic and Republican parties and examines their views on issues that are important to the nearly 50 million secular and nontheistic Americans who will help choose our president this upcoming November. (Full version at the link)



http://secular.org/content/2012-presidental-candidate-scorecard


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This highlights just how bad for non-believing Americans, as well as liberal believers, any Republican President would be.

What. The. Fuck?

SO I posted an OP in R&T that was story from a Christian blog a few minutes ago. It was not MY blog, it was not MY opinion, and yet it was just hidden by a jury.

This system is broken. There needs to be an appeal process. This system allows the majority to oppress the minority, the VERY thing that liberals and progressives are supposed to be AGAINST.


Here is a link to the blog. Enjoy some good christian values.

http://christiansforamoralamerica.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-deal-with-atheist-and-homosexual.html

Coffee with jesus