Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : To be a Liberal,you have to believe that..... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (842)	9/7/1999 3:38:00 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6418

What's interesting about the list of socially-sanctioned but now condemned practices you mention is that, with the possible exception of dueling, these were practices sustained by specific religious notions about the worth and status of particular classes of human being, and these practices came under attack and were ended when religion began to lose its universal grip on the social mind. It became increasingly dubious, in the minds of citizens, for religious figures to be in positions of translating dogma into law. Religiously-based support for hideous practices in the past ought to make us wary when recrudescent religious notions underlie attempts to criminalize behaviors not felt to be criminal by the large majority of citizens, particularly, in this case, very early abortion. Your side wants to translate dogma into law. I don't like it. I have GOT to disengage. I am terribly behind in my obligations.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (842)	9/7/1999 3:44:00 PM
From: E	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6418

P.S. (this is really still the last post, so I'm not posting again, really!) What you've said is remarkable. You've said that in a democracy, religious groups can be expected to attempt to turn their views into coercive legislation, and that you approve. This is certainly a warning to people like myself who were beginning to adopt a more latitudinarian view of religion in the schools, separation of church and state, that whole range of issues. Heck, I was annoyed when atheists objected to the creche on the Courthouse lawn. But what you've said is that religion is a Trojan horse. You've said you are going to do all you can to get your religious views turned into law and make me do what you want.