Headache

I have no problems stopping once the cause of the problem goes away, i.e preaching and forcing me to follow religious dogma.

And how can I stop when the religious people are nothing but dishonest and wants to remove facts and replace them with fantasies? I have no problems replacing facts with new facts, only facts with fantasy! Once this stops, the reason for my actions disappear.

arnoldo

Well sir, there's a little thing called free speech so don't get upset when people express their religious beliefs. As far as the laws are concerned that is a political issue thus you should vote for whoever would promote a stronger separation of church and state.

Peter Kirby

I live in the United States, where I am not forced to follow any religious dogma. There are dishonest people for every cause under the sun; I have learned not to worry so much about people who are wrong in life.

When it comes, say, to the controversy in the United States of giving time to Creationism or disclaimers to biological evolution, I applaud those who have defended the integrity of the educational system and opposed religious-based education in the public school classroom, and particularly the science classroom. May they meet continued success.

Jeffrey Gibson

Many of whom, BTW, are "believers".

Jeffrey

Peter Kirby

Correct, Jeffrey.

Peter Kirby

Headache

Free speech? OK, but free speech and laws are not the same thing. When you use your religion to create laws that I, who don't follow it, has to follow, it is not a matter of free speech anymore.

I don't care what you say, I care what you do!
You can tell me to the day i die, that evolution is wrong and I wll maybe discuss it with you. But once yo start putting this into a system and forces it into public schools, it no longer is a matter of free speech.

Headache

Let's say you are a gay man and want to get married to another man....

Peter Kirby

I might even concede something about this point of the American legal system; I believe it should become less involved, not more, in declaring 'marriages'. Marriages are recognized by your social circle and/or religious body. Some other expression, such as 'domestic partnership' or 'civil union', could be the only one used by U.S. courts (for any such contract, including the ones formed between men and women). I don't know if the citizens of the United States are ready to take away the language of marriage from the U.S. government, and I don't know if that's entirely for religious reasons (I would guess otherwise).

Headache

Abortion is another area, albeit still legal, christians wants it to become illegal based on their religion.

Try to search Google for "school dance ban" and see all the religiously motivated bans on dance around the country.

And you can try to become president as an outspoken atheist.

Peter Kirby

You flit from one elephant to another with all the ease of a gnat at the zoo. I am a Christian and even a Catholic and, with my religious beliefs, I do not want abortion to be criminalized.

At the same time, I recognize that every voter must "vote their conscience" and that a conscience is not formed ex nihilo from first principles and reasoning in the case of any human being. If you have a solution to this "flaw in democracy," please let us know.

I'll stop there because I don't like having 3 things hurled at me when I had already discussed one, which got left by the wayside. It does not show a commitment to dialogue.

Peter Kirby