Homosexual marriage

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

Stick to the harp.

I wish I had more time for it ...

But that absolutely DOES make you inconsistent. If you were consistent your only concern would be ‘harm’.

No, if I were consistent I would state what my viewpoint is and stick to it. And that's what I'm doing. I've never said that harmfulness was my only criteria.

Why would enforceability enter into it? Are you saying enforceability is more important then morality?

No, I'm saying that sadly we live in a fallen world, with limited resources, and one must choose where to apply these resources. As I said before, I think that, for example, dwelling on hateful thoughts is harmful. But would I pass a law against dwelling on hateful thoughts? Obviously not. How would it be enforced? And while trying to figure out how to enforce it, other people could commit crimes right and left without anyone stopping them because resources are tied up trying to figure out how to read people's minds.

(Of course Lotesse claims to be able to read my mind; maybe we should just hire her )

Promiscuous sex is immoral right? Sex out of wedlock is immoral right? So why wouldn’t you vote for a ban on sex between non married people? Whats the difference between that and a ban on sex because of age? They are both just as hard to enforce. But we DO have age of consent laws in place.

My vote on these laws, again, is based on considerations of harm and enforceability. Yes, both are hard to enforce, but IMO the harm is MUCH greater against the child, so it's well worth the resources to try to enforce it. My decision is based on trying to balance all of the complex factors involved. It's not just a brainless "this is wrong so I want a law against it" mentality.

Yet you choose to pick on gays who want to get married and not on non married people who want to have sex? Why the inconsistency there?

Again, my vote on these laws is based on considerations of harm and enforceability. I think gay marriage would be very harmful, and it is 100 percent enforceable. Doesn't even pull a cop off the street or an investigator away from his/her research to try to solve a crime. Trying to catch adult non-married sex would involve using up tons of resources that IMO could be better used elsewhere, such as trying to catch pedophiles.

If there were referendums to change all the age of consent laws in the country to 12 would you not vote against it because its hard to enforce? Be consistent… Where would we be today if leaders like Martin Luther King and Susan B. Anthony had only pressed for things because they were popular and easy to do? Its not a very Christian way of thinking frankly…

I don't press for things because they're popular and easy to do. In fact, being on this thread is VERY unpopular and VERY difficult for me, yet I do it.

The reality of things is that resources are limited, and I think one must look at harm and enforceability issues when talking about what laws to enact. Passing laws against wrong thoughts, for example, would be ridiculous, although I think wrong thoughts are very harmful.

How? Explain how promoting monogamy and rewarding love between consenting adults will be more “significantly harmful to society� then NOT doing it.

There's no reason to do this, because I've already explained, and you disagree with my reasons, just like I disagree with your reasons that it is not harmful.