The Religious and Political Views of Same Sex Marriage

[Guest Soldier of God]

Human biology supports heterosexuality and contradicts homosexuality.

 

http://codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=38&chapter=6&lid=en&side=r&verse=9&zoomSlider=0

 

1 Corinthians, 6:9-10

 

9 Or know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit God’s kingdom? Be not deceived: neither lewd persons, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor catamites, nor sodomites.

 

10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

 

http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=20120510_16_A1_CUTLIN290175&PrintComments=1

 

"I have the same view on marriage that I had when I was governor and that I've expressed many times - I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman," Romney said when asked by reporters about President Barack Obama's support earlier in the day for gay marriages.

[Guest LAW]

God gave us free choice. Is forcing your will on the position of another what the bible teaches or what this country stands for? Or is that bigotry?

[Guest ALWAYSRED]

The sanctity of marriage isn’t something made up yesterday.

 

Every major religious faith - Christianity, Islam, Orthodox Judaism - teaches that homosexuality is an abomination. Homosexual behavior, especially sodomy, is unnatural and immoral. It is absurd, bordering on social madness, to elevate gay and lesbian relationships to the sanctified status of marriage - a form of moral anarchy characterized by radical individualism, hedonism and sexual liberation. Same-sex marriage is a symptom of cultural decay.

 

Our Judeo-Christian ancestors understood something that postmodern liberals do not: The primary purpose of sexual activity is to procreate - to have children - within the boundaries of marriage. Romantic love, personal fulfillment, burning passion - all of these things are nice, but secondary to the real purpose and mission of marriage. Secular liberals are engaged in social engineering. They are fostering the myth that women and men are the same and interchangeable. According to Mr. Obama, a child needs two committed and loving parents - regardless of their gender. This is fantasy. A child needs a committed mother and father. Women and men are profoundly different; they have distinct natures, with unique biological, emotional and psychological characteristics. It is the fusion of these two divergent genders that provides the balance and harmony necessary for the healthy development of children. Hence, same-sex “marriage” is an oxymoron. It is akin to redefining gravity: an act of hubris destined to fail.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/10/obamas-homosexual-america-833943949/

[Luke_Wilbur]

Why not change the legal name of marriage to "Civil Union" for both hetro and same-sex couples with all the rights and privileges of a traditional marriage to the Courts and Government and be done with this issue. Leave the name "Marriage" to be used by churches, non-profits, private organizations, and individuals for the actual event ceremony for the non religious and Mass for the religious.

[differentDemocrat]

who cares what people do in the privacy of their own rooms and with THEIR OWN lives?!

[Guest MCL04]

This country is in bad shape. We have lost our belief and understanding of God. We have replaced our Creator's laws with Man's.

[Guest LAW]

"The conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness; and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may always be extensively accommodated to them." - George Washington

 

"Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, "that religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence." The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men: It is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considerd as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance. True it is, that no other rule exists, by which any question which may divide a Society, can be ultimately determined, but the will of the majority; but it is also true that the majority may trespass on the rights of the minority." - James Madison

[Guest LAW]

A new study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine has found a link between homosexuality and female fertility.

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02785.x/abstract

 

Recent evidence suggests that sexually antagonistic genetic factors in the maternal line promote homosexuality in men and fecundity in female relatives. However, it is not clear if and how these genetic factors are phenotypically expressed to simultaneously induce homosexuality in men and increased fecundity in their mothers and maternal aunts.

 

Aims.  The aim of the present study was to investigate the phenotypic expression of genetic factors that could explain increased fecundity in the putative female carriers.

 

Methods.  Using a questionnaire-based approach, which included also the Big Five Questionnaire personality inventory based on the Big Five theory, we investigated fecundity in 161 female European subjects and scrutinized possible influences, including physiological, behavioral, and personality factors. We compared 61 female probands who were either mothers or maternal aunts of homosexual men. One hundred females who were mothers or aunts of heterosexual men were used as controls.

Main Outcome Measures.  Personality traits, retrospective physiological and clinical data, behavior and opinions on fecundity-related issues were assessed and analyzed to illustrate possible effects on fecundity between probands and control females.

 

Results.  Our analysis showed that both mothers and maternal aunts of homosexual men show increased fecundity compared with corresponding maternal female relatives of heterosexual men. A two-step statistical analysis, which was based on t-tests and multiple logistic regression analysis, showed that mothers and maternal aunts of homosexual men (i) had fewer gynecological disorders; (ii) had fewer complicated pregnancies; (iii) had less interest in having children; (iv) placed less emphasis on romantic love within couples; (v) placed less importance on their social life; (vi) showed reduced family stability; (vii) were more extraverted; and (viii) had divorced or separated from their spouses more frequently.

 

Conclusions.  Our findings are based on a small sample and would benefit from a larger replication, however they suggest that if sexually antagonistic genetic factors that induce homosexuality in males exist, the factors might be maintained in the population by contributing to increased fecundity greater reproductive health, extraversion, and a generally relaxed attitude toward family and social values in females of the maternal line of homosexual men. Camperio Ciani AS, Fontanesi L, Iemmola F, Giannella E, Ferron C, and Lombardi L. Factors associated with higher fecundity in female maternal relatives of homosexual men. J Sex Med **;**:**–**

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[Guest genespace]

 

Consider the Red Queen's race in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. The Red Queen said, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." The Red Queen Principle can be stated thus:

 

"For an evolutionary system, continuing development is needed just in order to maintain its fitness relative to the systems it is co-evolving with."

 

The hypothesis is intended to explain two different phenomena: the advantage of sexual reproduction at the level of individuals, and the constant evolutionary arms race between competing species. In the first (microevolutionary) version, by making every individual an experiment when mixing mother's and father's genes, sexual reproduction may allow a species to evolve quickly just to hold onto the ecological niche that it already occupies in the ecosystem. In the second (macroevolutionary) version, the probability of extinction for groups (usually families) of organisms is hypothesized to be constant within the group and random among groups.

 

The paradox of sex — the "cost" of males

 

Science writer Matt Ridley popularized the term "the red queen" in connection with sexual selection in his book The Red Queen. In the book, Ridley discussed the debate in theoretical biology over the adaptive benefit of sexual reproduction to those species in which it appears. The connection of the Red Queen to this debate arises from the fact that the traditionally accepted theory (Vicar of Bray) only showed adaptive benefit at the level of the species or group, not at the level of the gene (although, it must be added here that the protean 'Vicar of Bray' adaptation is very useful to some species that belong to the lower levels of the food chain). By contrast, a Red-Queen-type theory that organisms are running cyclic arms races with their parasites can explain the utility of sexual reproduction at the level of the gene by positing that the role of sex is to preserve genes that are currently disadvantageous, but that will become advantageous against the background of a likely future population of parasites.

 

Sex is an evolutionary puzzle. In most sexual species, males make up half the population, yet they bear no offspring directly and generally contribute little to the survival of offspring. In fact, in some species, such as lions, males pose a positive threat to live young fathered by other males (although this could be viewed as a manifestation of Richard Dawkins' so-called selfish gene, whose 'goal' is to reproduce itself, which may as a consequence suppress the reproduction of other genes). In addition, males and females must spend resources to attract and compete for mates. Sexual selection also can favor traits that reduce the fitness of an organism, such as brightly colored plumage in birds of paradise that increases the likelihood for an individual to be noticed by both predators and potential mates (see the handicap principle for more on this). Thus, sexual reproduction can be highly inefficient.

 

One possible explanation for the fact that nearly all vertebrates are sexual is that sex increases the rate at which adaptation can occur. This is for two reasons. Firstly, if an advantageous mutation occurs in an asexual line, it is impossible for that mutation to spread without wiping out all other lines, which may have different advantageous mutations of their own. Secondly, it mixes up alleles. Some instances of genetic variation might be advantageous only when paired with other mutations, and sex increases the likelihood that such pairings will occur. Also, in asexually reproducing organisms, especially parthenogenetic organisms, mutations conferring an advantageous allele will have to occur twice, before the advantageous allele becomes fixed in the population, resulting in a longer phase where the heterozygote for the disadvantageous allele (relative to the new advantageous allele) is fixed in the population.

 

For sex to be advantageous for these reasons requires constant selection for changing conditions. One factor that might cause this is the constant arms race between parasites and their hosts. Parasites generally evolve quickly because of their short life cycles. As they evolve, they attack their hosts in a variety of ways. Two consecutive generations might be faced with very different selective pressures. If this change is rapid enough, it might explain the persistence of sex.

[Guest Mazy]

 

Google's Legalized Love Campaign is going to change the world. Republicans are going down.

[Guest MD 4 Marriage Equality]

Americans in four states affirmed the values of fairness and equality for the first time at the ballot box. Our win - the first state below the Mason-Dixon line to legalize marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples, is truly a stand-out.

 

We've accomplished so much during this campaign, and it's all thanks to Google and supporters like you.

[Guest All Smiles]

Its good to have friends in high places.

 

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/facing-antitrust-scrutiny-google-execs-still-backing-president-obama-for-reelection-20121031

 

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who served as an adviser to then-Sen. Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and is now a member of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Schmidt has given $5,000 to the Obama reelection campaign and an additional $30,800 to the Obama Victory Fund, the joint fundraising committee for Obama and the Democratic National Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records.

 

Schmidt's support was matched by Google cofounder Sergey Brin and Chief Legal Officer and Senior Vice President David Drummond, both of whom gave $5,000 to Obama and $30,800 to the Obama Victory Fund.

 

In the company's Washington office, Vint Cerf, Google vice president and chief Internet evangelist, who was a pioneer in the development of the Internet, has given $5,000 to Obama and $17,900 to the Obama Victory Fund.

 

Other Obama contributors from Google in the Washington area include State Policy Counsel John Burchett, who has given $2,000; as well as Global Ethics and Compliance Counsel Amol Naik, Privacy Policy Counsel David Lieber, and Jordan Bookey, manager of K-12 talent and outreach, who each gave $500.

 

In all, Obama has received more than $737,000 from Google-related donors—the president's third biggest contributor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Microsoft-related contributors are the second biggest donors to Obama, giving more than $761,000, according to the center's data.

[Guest Widow's Son]

One who holds the powers of rhetoric does not always know what is truth.