Religion, Secularism and Homosexuality

[Bob Butler 54]

(07-09-2017, 06:51 AM)taramarie Wrote: I do not know why people just do not butt out of people's personal decisions. You live by what you think is right and let others decide what is right for them. Also, do those who cry about babies being killed care about those babies once they are out of the womb? Do you care about preservation of that life as much as you care about the child being born? Btw I am not for abortion. I just acknowledge that there are many reasons why someone may actually need it and that it is none of my fkn business to be up in someone else's business.

In the old days of the Agricultural Age, it was thought possible to guess what God is thinking.  Assuming you guessed right, the thing to do is make up and enforce rules which make sure everyone does as God wishes.  Perhaps that was not the only style of thinking on big issues, but in general it was thought the kings, popes and such like could and should dictate what should be.

Come the Enlightenment, some thinkers came up with the idea of Rights, that certain decisions were personal, that you shouldn't go around forcing your opinion on someone else.  Naturally, many held the feeling that God agreed with Rights, that Rights were created by God, that Rights have divine approval.

You might wish that these two basic approaches might have settled out priorities by now, but abortion is one issue among others where many still believe they know God's opinion.  As the world becomes more secular, it is becoming less an issue of what God is thinking, more a question of whether one's own thoughts might perhaps matter.

To some degree, these two ways of thought still echo today.  Conservatives and especially fundamentalists might be somewhat more inclined to read God's mind and enforce proper behavior on all.  Progressives are often more enamored of rights and people making their own decisions.  This dichonomy is by no means a universal these days, only a trend, but it lurks behind a lot.