Morality, religion, and an excuse for close-mindedness

I'm just wondering, what makes you think you're right and the other guy wrong?

Just curious.

Is it because you think the other guy is immoral? If so, who or what tells you it is? Some sacred text, or perhaps a deity himself tells you?

I've been thinking about this because of all of the gay marriage stuff in the news. Recently, two gay men were kicked off of Main Street Plaza in downtown Salt Lake City for having a public display of affection on LDS church property. Of course, the LDS church doesn't sanction homosexual behavior, so they have every right to ask that it not be done on their private property. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that this has served as a means for people to keep spewing hate by people who have a problem with the homosexual lifestyle. Lets sample some comments from the KSL Salt Lake City Web Forum.....

User Hardtail writes: "Why is it that the Liberal Pukes of society cannot
fathom the Bible?"

User Lance T writes: "I am now to the point that I will treat them like a person but I will not tolerate anything homosexual. I will tell them it is wrong, sick, unnatural, unhealthy, and deviant. I will not support it in any way."

User Chris N writes: "We should all revert back to Biblical times and just stone them all as this kind of behavior should not be tolerated in our society."

The same user Chris N writes: "in the last days we will call good evil and evil good. I'm all for bringing on the wrath of GOD; the sooner the better, before we all become corrupt."

User Dolsen writes: "What gays want is a special category all for themselves. Special rights and all new laws just for their category or preference. That can never happen without chaos following. Next, the category who want to marry their pet will stage kiss-ins with their pets all over the country. Then will come the category who want to marry their SUV, boat, plane or their 6,000 sq. ft. home with a pool. There is no end. The answer needs to be a firm "NO"! Marriage is from the beginning between one man and one woman, period, the end."


I could go on, this only covers about half of the comment page.

Not that these individuals aren't entitled to have their opinion and express it, indeed this is still America.

However, I do wonder where they derive the authority of their opinion.

Is it from the Bible? Sure. Everybody cites the book of Leviticus. I don't really think anyone would argue that the Bible is anything but anti-homosexual. So I guess we can accept that. What ELSE does the Bible say though? Leviticus Chapter 20 states the people should be put to death for homosexuality, adultery, idol worship, incest, and bestiality. It also says that if a man has sex with a woman while she's having her period they both should be cut off from their people.

So...really, Bibleman? Can you imagine what would happen if we executed everyone who had had sex with someone other than their spouse? Bye-bye Governor Sanford. Hell, we'd probably be killing a third of our population. Do we honestly want that form of moral authoritarian rule? Well maybe some do. However, in modern society we've come to agree that women shouldn't be dumped outside the city while they're having their period, that we don't execute people for homosexuality and adultery. Leviticus also says we should put to death children who curse their parents. How many of us would still be around if that law still existed? The Bible says Male master can legally rape their female servants (Exodus 21, Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 21). We certainly don't sanction that anymore.

So why should we believe what the Bible says about homosexuality? The problem with the Bible is that it is quite obviously antiquated in many ways. if it is all indeed the inspired word of God, we better adhere to all of it, not just pick and choose what fits our agenda. Right? My kid better not ever smart off to me! Where's my female servant? Yeah?

So I don't really care what the Bible says about it. Don't EVEN try to bring up the book of mormon. No credible non-LDS scholar gives the book of Mormon any kind of scholarly weight whatsoever.

So maybe God tells you that this stuff is wrong. Or maybe God's prophet. Okay, here's the deal. I work on evidence. You can't convince me that some old fart sitting on his duff in Salt Lake City is any more a prophet of God than the old fart sitting on his duff in the Vatican is the Vicar of Christ. They're old, white men. Period. Please, oh please give me some argument not based in RELIGION, because your religion doesn't mean jack squat to me. I have many of the same beliefs that you do, yet we can still disagree and I can validate my argument just as well as you can validate yours. Even the devil can quote scripture to suit his purpose.

All your religion and your morality do is give you an absolute excuse to be close minded. You never have to think critically, you never have to be introspective, you never have to evaluate your beliefs. It's all just given to you. How lazy! America was born because some guys (most of them deists, by the way) bothered to think outside the box and decide that just because the King said so wasn't good enough anymore. We've lost spirit that now as the "moral" wing of this country seeks to shove their agenda down everyone else's throat.

Do Christians honestly think they're the only "great" religion to grace the earth? The ancient Greek and Roman religions lasted for thousands of years. Many of the forms of Ancient Native American beliefs are still practiced today. Islam, a younger faith than Christianity, is growing by leaps and bounds. Who's to say that 2000 years from now there won't be a new "great religion?"

If you think you know the mind of God on homosexuality or anything else, and that you have a holy mandate to crusade against gay people, may I remind you that the people who flew the planes on September 11 thought they knew the mind of God and had a holy mandate as well. Interesting huh?

Oh, I forgot, they're wrong and you're right, God and the Bible say so.

Give me a break and think for yourself!