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From: brower@fortune.UUCP (Richard Brower)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Is General Goodness just a moral principle?
Message-ID: <5409@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jul-85 14:23:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: fortune.5409
Posted: Tue Jul 30 14:23:57 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Jul-85 20:18:08 EDT
References: <852@umcp-cs.UUCP> <360@utastro.UUCP> <879@umcp-cs.UUCP> <1235@pyuxd.UUCP> <2134@pucc-h> <2147@pucc-h>
Reply-To: brower@fortune.UUCP (Richard brower)
Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 34
Summary: 

In article <2147@pucc-h> aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent) writes:
>>> The Bible was written, among other things, to give us guidelines as to what
>>> is actually in our best interests, though we may not have discovered it yet.

This is a lovely opinion, unless one happens to have some other religion, or
no religion at all, or if one is gay, or....

>Actually it's the other way around:  The Bible opposes certain things because
>they are not what anyone really wants, what are in anyone's best interests.

And that is why they say 'but this is for your oun good' as they put you in
the oven (jail, whatever).

>>> fundamentalists look upon this as one of the star sins, i.e. something which
>>> renders those who commit it liable to judgment and ostracism.  But in actual
>>> fact, the reason not to do it is that it is a suboptimal satisfaction of a
>>> want -- the want for total (not just physical) intimacy with a MOTOS, which
>>> can't be achieved very well outside of marriage.
>Anyone out there who is married but who played around before marriage care to
>comment on the difference between the two?  All I can say is that my minimal
>experience with premarital sex was pretty painful (no, not physically!).  At
>least I can say that it doesn't work without a high degree of trust between
>the partners, such trust as is at its strongest when the two have made a solemn
>commitment to each other.

And some ceremony in front of a priest, preacher, or minister (of the Christian
faith, I presume) is the only way to make that trusting commitment.  I have to
disagree and my reasons are personal.  This sounds like another way of saying
'you aren't married, your relationship is not "real"'.  I hear this regularly
about my (gay) relationship, but there is no legal mechanism for marrying two
men (can you say 'catch 22'?).  I can say "bullshit".

Richard A. Brower		Fortune Systems
{ihnp4,ucbvax!amd,hpda,sri-unix,harpo}!fortune!brower