Prostitution, Adultry and Christianity

[Iconoclastic]

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His brother was his caregiver. This unfortunate man had one thing that gave him great pleasure, sex.

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Did anyone else think the next line would consist of his brother giving him gay sex? Reminds me of that jailcell scene from Blazing Saddles.

[oe39]

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would you have less of a problem with their decision if they were atheists/agnostic?

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i would

[bluesbassman]

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What? So if a non-Christian forms the opinion that prostitution is immoral and does not condone it in this case, his opinion is totally cool and rational right?

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Nope. And I doubt many atheists here would say otherwise.

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I am pretty sure "your Christian friends at work" or whoever had their reasons for thinking prostitution was wrong even in this case. Just because you disagree with them does not mean they are irrational.

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Correct. We may conclude they are irrational because they are Christians, not due to their stance on this particular issue.

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Also, maybe I am misunderstanding your conclusion, but from this: "Such is the irrationality Christian's exhibit." it appears you are stating that because you quizzed a few random people who happen to be Christian at work, and you disagree with them (and this automatically makes their opinion irrational), that all Christians exhibit irrationality. If I find a few atheist friends who think prostitution is always wrong under any circumstances, would I be correct to say "such is the irrationality atheists exhibit"? Think about this for a second.

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We know they are irrational since they are Christians. We also know they took the incorrect moral stance on this particular issue. Since a common manifestation of Christian morality is a depraved view of sex, including a universal condemnation of prostitution, it is reasonable to conclude the former had something to do with their view of the latter. It's not a proof, just a reasonable likelihood.

If an atheist condemned prostitution in this case, I would also strongly suspect some form of irrationality. Being rational implies atheism, but being an atheist is only necessary and far from sufficient to imply rationality.

[riverfish1]

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What? So if a non-Christian forms the opinion that prostitution is immoral and does not condone it in this case, his opinion is totally cool and rational right?

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Nope. And I doubt many atheists here would say otherwise.

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I am pretty sure "your Christian friends at work" or whoever had their reasons for thinking prostitution was wrong even in this case. Just because you disagree with them does not mean they are irrational.

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Correct. We may conclude they are irrational because they are Christians, not due to their stance on this particular issue.

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Also, maybe I am misunderstanding your conclusion, but from this: "Such is the irrationality Christian's exhibit." it appears you are stating that because you quizzed a few random people who happen to be Christian at work, and you disagree with them (and this automatically makes their opinion irrational), that all Christians exhibit irrationality. If I find a few atheist friends who think prostitution is always wrong under any circumstances, would I be correct to say "such is the irrationality atheists exhibit"? Think about this for a second.

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We know they are irrational since they are Christians. We also know they took the incorrect moral stance on this particular issue. Since a common manifestation of Christian morality is a depraved view of sex, including a universal condemnation of prostitution, it is reasonable to conclude the former had something to do with their view of the latter. It's not a proof, just a reasonable likelihood.

If an atheist condemned prostitution in this case, I would also strongly suspect some form of irrationality. Being rational implies atheism, but being an atheist is only necessary and far from sufficient to imply rationality.

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How exactly does being rational imply atheism? You can be a personally rational Christian as long as you aren't creating proofs of the existence of God. Your rationality for the existence of a supreme being can just be the inner peace of mind that it affords you. Attempting to prove the existence of an object is irrational, but having faith is not. Unless it is rationally and logically proven that God does NOT exist (which I have yet to see, but would be willing to entertain attempts at such proofs), then you can be a perfectly rational Christian.

For those of you claiming that a rational christian is an oxymoron as a christian takes the Bible word for word, there are many christians who see the bible as a sort of parable or guide to living their life and who apply the contradicting lessons shown in it to moral situations in their everyday lives.

For the record, I am thoroughly agnostic so I am not neccesarily defending the christian religion.

[bluesbassman]

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Your rationality for the existence of a supreme being can just be the inner peace of mind that it affords you.

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That is the very essence of irrationality: to use one's feelings or emotions as a tool of cognition. To accept proposition X as true given that there is no objective evidence to support X (or even contradicts X), because it provides psychological comfort, is essentially the definition of being irrational.

[riverfish1]

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Your rationality for the existence of a supreme being can just be the inner peace of mind that it affords you.

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That is the very essence of irrationality: to use one's feelings or emotions as a tool of cognition. To accept proposition X as true given that there is no objective evidence to support X (or even contradicts X), because it provides psychological comfort, is essentially the definition of being irrational.

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Then to claim that x does not and cannot exist given that there is no objective evidence to contradict x is also being completly irrational.

I will admit that the statement you are arguing against was untrue and not very well thought out but I don't think that this dissproves the whole of my arguement.

[vhawk01]

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Your rationality for the existence of a supreme being can just be the inner peace of mind that it affords you.

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That is the very essence of irrationality: to use one's feelings or emotions as a tool of cognition. To accept proposition X as true given that there is no objective evidence to support X (or even contradicts X), because it provides psychological comfort, is essentially the definition of being irrational.

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Then to claim that x does not and cannot exist given that there is no objective evidence to contradict x is also being completly irrational.

I will admit that the statement you are arguing against was untrue and not very well thought out but I don't think that this dissproves the whole of my arguement.

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Yep. The people who make this claim, however, are called Christians, not atheists. They are also called Muslims and Jews and Hindus and Mormons.

[oe39]

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Your rationality for the existence of a supreme being can just be the inner peace of mind that it affords you. Attempting to prove the existence of an object is irrational, but having faith is not.

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how does the inner peace of mind affect your feelings on the existence of a supreme being? are you saying you can choose to believe anything you want?

[Matt R.]

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We know they are irrational since they are Christians.

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I'm not sure if it is funny, strange, or stupid that you think Leonhard Euler, Freeman Dyson, and Isaac Newton are/were irrational. Is it a combination of all three?

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We also know they took the incorrect moral stance on this particular issue.

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Says who? You? So you have the ultimate authority on what is correct on a moral issue? Out of curiousity, are you an atheist because you are afraid of someone having a higher moral authority than you on matters? Or is it just because you're really really rational? (in comparison to guys like Euler and Newton, of course)

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If an atheist condemned prostitution in this case, I would also strongly suspect some form of irrationality.

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Why? Isn't it possible that the prostitution, even in this case, would cause some type of psychological harm long-term (see a previous post in this thread)? I'm not sure about what's going through the guy's head, so I'm just speculating. Or is it only irrational because you say it is?

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Being rational implies atheism

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No it doesn't. Thanks for asserting that as fact though while at the same time being completely wrong.

[Matt R.]

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What? So if a non-Christian forms the opinion that prostitution is immoral and does not condone it in this case, his opinion is totally cool and rational right? I am pretty sure "your Christian friends at work" or whoever had their reasons for thinking prostitution was wrong even in this case. Just because you disagree with them does not mean they are irrational.

Also, maybe I am misunderstanding your conclusion, but from this: "Such is the irrationality Christian's exhibit." it appears you are stating that because you quizzed a few random people who happen to be Christian at work, and you disagree with them (and this automatically makes their opinion irrational), that all Christians exhibit irrationality. If I find a few atheist friends who think prostitution is always wrong under any circumstances, would I be correct to say "such is the irrationality atheists exhibit"? Think about this for a second.



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Matt,

Atheism isn't a belief system. Christianity is. And any reading of the NT will prove that the dogmatic viewpoints discussed in the OP are rooted in christian teachings.

Like any cookie cutter, your argument applies to some things, but not others. Guess which one this is?

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Snowball,
Since your reply has absolutely nothing to do with my post, I cannot decipher what you mean by "Guess which one this is?". You should work on making sense.

If you are implying that because Christianity is a belief system, then all Christians must believe the exact same thing, then you are wrong. Thanks for playing though. We do disagree on things sometimes. For references, see the multitude of different versions of Christianity, and pretty much the last 2000 years.

You have a nice cookie cutter argument there yourself, by the way. In the future, it would be a good idea to point out why my argument "applies to some things, but not others". Also, you should perhaps say which things my argument applies/does not apply to, since your post doesn't make any sense otherwise.