peej's Profile

Located in: Austin, MN

Current Status: (Offline)

Total Comments: 26

Latest Comments

• Maine voters reject gay-marriage law

  Funny, after only a few days I am starting to feel like I know some of you guys :-) It is getting kind of addictive - I think I will have to stop reading these posts.

  Frankly I am surprised there is not more anti-g@y posting on here yet - that is a good thing in my opinion. 

  For an interesting take on the marriage bans, see www.fivethirtyeight.com. 

  Nate Silver, an economist and math whiz, has said you can predict marriage ban votes based on these three measures:

  1. The year in which the amendment was voted upon;
  2. The percentage of adults in 2008 Gallup tracking surveys who said that religion was an important part of their daily lives;
  3. The percentage of white evangelicals in the state.

  So supporters of g@y marriage or civil unions should not lose heart because the bans are loosing ground at about 2% per year, according to Mr. Silver.  So it is only a matter of time until demographics change and more more of us actually get to know some g@y people, for example.  It has taken conservatives a while to come around on human rights issues like slavery and the denying women the vote, they will eventually come around on this one too.

  11/04/2009 10:31 PM
• 'God's standards' are arbitrary creations of unenlightened mind

  Atilla - I did not want to get into a big debate about polling, because a lot depends on exactly which question you ask - but your poll supports my case even better than I did.  In your link, recent results show 59% of Protestants/other Christians and 53% of Catholics are “pro-life.” So my original point that Christians have differing views on issues like abortion and capital punishment still stands.  Because although these numbers have grown to slim majorities, it proves that Christians are almost equally divided on the abortion issue.  It also shows that a significant percentage of non-Christians are pro-life.  In fact your link does a great job of showing that the real divide is political ideology, not religion.  71% of conservatives vs 21% of liberals are pro-life, a much bigger spread than the 59%/31% between protestants/other Christians and other/none in the religious breakdown.

  Which is essentially what I have arguing with you about since I first saw you post - I think you try to view Christian and politically conservative as one and the same and they are not.

  11/04/2009 9:22 PM
• 'God's standards' are arbitrary creations of unenlightened mind

  Well if those legislators are self-proclaimed Catholics then they deserve a little criticism from the Pope, I guess.  It is an example of the ongoing problem with the Pope’s authority among some American Catholics.

  We are a nation with a Christian majority.  But we are not a Christian nation in the sense that our government does not (or should not according to the Constitution) endorse one particular religion.

  11/04/2009 4:42 PM
• 'God's standards' are arbitrary creations of unenlightened mind

  Irishman - you can’t make a compelling case against abortion by implying (which I think you did, otherwise why mention it?) that supporters of a woman’s right to choose should be burned at the stake. 

  Besides, it is not my opinion, it is based on simple math.  Poll numbers vary, but roughly 78% of Americans identify themselves as Christian.  and only roughly 20% or less of Americans think abortion should be illegal in most cases.  So even if all abortion opponents were Christian, that still leaves you with a lot of self-identifying Christians who support abortion rights.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States

  http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm

  11/04/2009 1:35 PM
• 'God's standards' are arbitrary creations of unenlightened mind

  Sorry Pirate, but that is a totally unconvincing argument.  To be considered brutal, evil, or bloody you only need to do a few terrible things - by your logic a serial killer could be considered all right because he once fed a stray cat.

  In fact when you are talking about someone who is supposedly omnibenevolent, the standard for behavior is even higher.

  11/04/2009 12:37 PM

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