[kang]

Wow, another fast moving thread.

What I haven’t seen is a definition of “morality” and precisely what aspects of it the government should legislate.

Take murder. I think we all agree this is immoral and the government should legislate against it.

Now take homosexuality. Some of us think it is immoral and some don’t. Some think the government should legislate against it, while others don’t.

What’s the difference? The big difference is that murder hurts the victims. Two homosexuals, as long as they are consenting adults, don’t hurt anyone. This is where the moral principle of reciprocity comes into play. Treat others as you would treat yourself. You don’t want to be killed, so you can see how the government should legislate against it. But you also don’t want someone to tell you what you can or cannot do in the bedroom, so you should not, nor should the government, legislate that. You don’t want the government to tell you who you can or cannot marry, either.

Liberals will allow homosexuals to do what they want in the bedroom because they don’t want someone to tell them what they can or cannot do in the bedroom. Many conservatives want the government to legislate against homosexual sex. The only reason they can’t is because of a Supreme Court case that said what people do in their own bedroom is none of the governments business.

So where do we draw the line? What is the government’s business and what is not? I say if it hurts someone, then the government should get involved to protect the victims. If it does not hurt someone, the government should stay out.

The problem is some issues are not black and white, like murder or sex. Prayer in school, does this hurt anyone? Well, you could argue that it puts peer pressure on atheists to believe, to conform. The same argument applies to “under god” in the pledge. Not having prayer in school doesn’t hurt the believer, because they can pray in their head all they want, and it protects the atheist from undue pressure. Conservatives would have you believe that homosexual marriage hurts the community somehow (although there is no evidence of this whatsoever), while liberals say allowing two people who love each other to commit to this in marriage strengthens marriage. I think these are two issues that the government should stay out of.