Addressing some Common Arguments Against Gay Marriage

With increasing movement toward normalising homosexual monogamy by legal recognition of gay marriage, I have noticed certain desperation in the arguments for the opposition. My first instinct was to have a bit of a chuckle at the silly fundies, but I have begun to see some whom I would otherwise consider intelligent people spouting some of the most ridiculous reasons to block this move toward marriage equality. My goal in this post is to clarify some common objections and unpackage the assumptions made by these claims and try to understand how people can believe them… and hopefully set some minds at ease.

The Constitutional Right to Communicate

I would like to support the Occupy movement. At present I see them as an eclectic bunch of people who have tied themselves together and at now trying to run in several different directions at once. They don’t really have an agenda or plan as yet, and when they do actually make a cohesive collective statement, I will decide whether or not I support that statement. There are a lot of things I think they should stand for, such as an opposition to using farmland and rainforest reserves as a place to test experimental mining techniques that could cause permanent contamination of the water supply; or fractional reserve banking; or demanding manditory triple bottom line reporting for all public companies wanting to trade on the Australian stock exchange, but it isn’t my place to tell them what they should stand for or how they should stand for it (unless I want to attend one of the general assemblies of course). They say that something is wrong with the way things are being run and I am inclined to agree. If they come to an agreement of what to do about it, I’ll decide then what I think.

However, I PASSIONATELY support their right to gather in peaceful assembly to communicate on political issues with each other and their elected representatives as granted by the Australian constitution. I vehemently oppose any action to break up these gatherings as a violation of the rights conferred upon them by the establishment of this nation.

What is Money?

One of the major themes I am seeing come up time and time again in discussions about the Occupy Wall Street protests is the nature of money. Some people want it evenly distributed. Some want it to represent mineral reserves. Most think that the banks have too much of it and the workers have too little of it. Some want more government control of it. There are demands for restrictions of its printing while others want a decentralisation of currency and the right to print their own money rather than being required to use debt based currencies. There are a number of complex issues here which I can go into detail with in later articles, but there is a single pressing question that a true Jaminologist must ask before proceeding into any consideration of these demands. The question is: What is Money… Really?

Does the ‘Casually Pepper Spraying Cop’ Meme Undermine the Seriousness of the Issue?

The original image of Lt John Pike spraying students

The initial video is intense, but what seems to stand out is the casual nature of the action. The protesters being attacked are not screaming and chanting. They are quietly sitting on a footpath preparing to be sprayed. They know it is coming yet they still refuse to move. They are bound by their conviction to stay. The police involved also know what is coming. They are not granted the option of backing down. They have been charged with the duty of clearing the path at any cost. Neither side is here for fun. Both have a job to do. The officers prepare themselves and with grim determination, they carry out their obligation without rage, malice or mockery.

How I Kissed Courtship Goodbye

 

Christian Self Help

There are a lot of Christian self help books available offering quick fix solutions to the dangers and emotional pitfalls of modern dating. In fact, it is a multi-billion dollar industry. Clearly they aren’t working, otherwise people would have stopped buying the books right? In this article, I’m going to offer some advice based on lessons I’ve learned during the course of my life which have changed the way I look at dating.

Stimulating Church Growth in a Pluralistic Religious Marketplace

The American big church movement is growing. While churches in the majority are small, the top one percent of churches claims fifteen percent of church memberships, money and full time staff. The Top twenty percent claims sixty to sixty five percent(1). As large churches take a larger and larger share of the market, smaller churches struggle to keep their doors open. In this essay I will explore some factors which allow successful churches to attract new members and retain existing members to grow exponentially in a saturated and declining religious marketplace, and offer some suggestions for church leaders wanting to stimulate growth in their congregations. The main influences to church growth are church friendliness, counter cultural doctrines, service style and marketing.

The Significance of Children in the Teachings of Jesus

 

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (Mark 10:14-15)

In a humble, single room hut in the village of Capernaum, a small boy quietly tends to the animals in the lower, hay covered floor that was carved out for the animals, while in the raised family area of the hut a group of young men, guests of his father and disciples of the Rabbi Jesus, argue over which of them will hold the higher position when they’ve overthrown the Roman oppressors. The rabbi returns. His disciples run to him, demanding that he tell them the positions they will hold in his kingdom. The rabbi’s eyes scan the hut quickly as the little boy crouches low behind his goat. The rabbi smiles; he has found his answer. Pushing through the demanding young men, he reaches down and lifts the boy up to the higher level of the hut, placing him in the midst of the men, and tells them that the one of them who is most like the little boy will be the greatest; that those who cannot be like him are not fit for his kingdom. (Matthew 18:1-5, Luke 9:46-48, Mark 10:14-15).

 

The Synoptic Gospels each contain an account of Jesus declaring that being like a child is a requirement for entry into the kingdom of Heaven. Given that over half the world’s population consider Jesus an authority on the topic of Heaven, and a third say he is God (1), and also given the implications of being left out of the kingdom for failing to be like a child are disastrous by dominant modern interpretations, it would appear that having a correct understanding of this verse would be of critical importance. Unfortunately, those seeking to understand the meaning of this statement have left large bodies of information unused in forming their conclusions, with the result that the dominant understanding of Jesus’ statement may be incomplete. In this essay, I plan to bring together the major sources of information on the reality of what it meant to be a small child within the Roman Empire during the early part of the first century from both primary documents and archaeological evidence, in order to present four alternative readings of the phrase, and their theological applications.

These are as follows:
1) Being like a child means being vulnerable and dependant on others.
2) Being like a child means learning by asking challenging questions.
3) Being like a child means having a low status.
4) Being like a child means existing outside of the Mosaic Law.

Sex, Marriage and Religion

 

reaching out in love

Modern society continues to be plagued by conflicting ideas about sex practices, how they relate to marriage, and what God thinks of all this. Being the good Samaritan that I am, I thought I’d help out a bit by giving the argument a Jaminological treatment. In this post, I intend to strip Western ideas of sex back to their basic components, identify the common religious assumptions, and consider how a religiously enlightened Jaminist would view sex and marriage.

Is there Life after Death?

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

-A poem by Emily Dickenson

Some say that it is our opposable thumbs that set humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Others claim it is the brain or the soul. I think the thing that really sets us apart is the awareness of our own, inevitable death. But then, perhaps we aren’t as aware as we think we are. Despite the overwhelming evidence of the finality of death, cultures all over the world hold beliefs of people surviving death in various forms, whether through reincarnation, resurrection, netherworlds of reward and punishment, ghostly forms, cryogenics, or even the more down to earth ideas of living on in the memories of loved ones or the genetic code of biological descendants. In this essay, I intend to examine some possible reasons for these beliefs and to consider whether there is any validity to the claim that we can outlive our own mortal bodies.

What makes human belief such an interesting topic is that the reasons we believe what we believe are rarely what we would expect. Recent studies have shown that emotional decision making usually precedes rational justification of those decisions (Seybold 78). So even when we think we have a rational justification for what we believe, it is necessary to examine our own emotional response to the question to correct for our own personal bias. With that in mind, any thorough investigation into life after death must begin with a review of the baggage which all humans bring to the table: imaginative obstacles, fear of non-existence, the desire for purpose, and wish fulfilment.

Video: An Ontological Argument