God does not Consider Homosexuality a Sin

Thanks, Truth_seeker, for debating me! I look forward to seeing your arguments. I will now set up the premise to my arguments. My whole argument will follow in later rounds, as it's easier to split up that way. SETUP - PART ONE: Definition of Love: "an intense emotion of affection, warmth, fondness, and regard towards a person or thing" [1] Romans 13:10" "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (NASB) I claim that all sins go against God's fundamental principle of love. I cannot prove this, but I will support it through quotes like these, and I will counter any examples that my opponent says do not against love. I also claim that all love is essentially the same; that is: love for one's friends, parents, children, and spouse all fall on the same spectrum. As we progress toward romantic love (not of lust, but companionship), love acquires new attributes, like a greater sense of responsibility, commitment, and finally sexual attraction. If God considered homosexuality a sin, it would contradict His message of love. The bible teaches that God is essentially love. For instance, let's look at 1 John 4:7... "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." (NIV) Love between people is what God wants. I pose this question to my opponent and voters: Why would God restrict same-sex romantic love? All kinds of love fall on the same spectrum. Since God encourages sons to love their fathers and daughters to love their mothers (filial love) - why would same-sex romantic love be forbidden? Two people who are in love should please God, not disgust him. I will emphasize that God is just. If He is just, and restricts homosexuality, then He must have a justified reason to do so (I will of course argue He doesn't). Psalm 25:8 - "The LORD is good and does what is right..." (NIV) I will leave it up to con, who has BoP, to come up with a justified reason for God to condemn homosexuality. Since God considers intercourse before marriage a sin, we can look to what kind of marriages God accepts in figuring out whether homosexuality is acceptable to God. For this, we'll discuss Hebrews 13:4... "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (KJB) Needless to say, whoremongers and adulterers have nothing to do with homosexuals. Another translation of this verse says, "Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery." (NLT) Then there's another translation of the same verse: "Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge." (NASB) The message? We need to honor marriage. And by that, God indicates that spouses need to be faithful to one another. This is what is important to God concerning marriage: not hurting one's significant other, not going against His message of love. To put it simply, cheating is immoral in God's eyes, so an unfaithful marriage is the kind of marriage he restricts. Hebrews 13:4 mentions nothing of same-sex marriage/homosexuality, and even says "all" as though referring to many groups of people. Perhaps implying that all kinds of people can marry? This isn't my main argument, but it's something to consider. SETUP - PART TWO: Because I anticipate that my opponent will refer to Leviticus 18:22, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and Romans 1:26-28, I will set up why I believe these verses are false. Or rather why the deciphered meaning/interpretation of their original Hebrew and Greek words are false. Why do I question how original texts have been deciphered and translated? First, let's address the conception that professional translators can decipher meaning with nearly complete accuracy. They can't always. Translating languages is not concrete. For instances, "Don't touch me!" can be interpreted to imply at least four different situations (e.g. "That tickles, haha!," "That's annoying!" "I hate you!," and "That's illegal!"). In deciphering and translating, we often have to make inferences based on context. What are inferences? Guesses. It's uncertainty. If it's uncertain, it's unreliable. "But we have the entire bible. No context is lost." Not true. Ever consider time period as a part of context? The New Testament alone was written about nearly 2000 years ago. [2] Time is a filter through which we can lose context and meaning. I ask my viewers to guess what the term "lady-killer" means... Did you guess already? Okay... So based on the two words that make it up, it may mean (1) a person who kills ladies or (2) a lady who kills. It probably means one of those things, right? Nope, "...lady-killer was a term used in the 1970s to refer to men whom women supposedly found irresistible." [3] So even interpreting the meaning of works originally written in English may prove difficult! If you're still sure professionals can decipher meaning with complete accuracy from texts written in *ancient* Hebrew and Greek, consider that historians and English scholars aren't always sure about what writers like William Shakespeare or Edgar Allan Poe have meant in their works, and those authors lived only a few hundred years ago compared to biblical writers. In the next round, I will discuss what I believe verses that supposedly refer to homosexuality more likely mean. [1] http://dictionary.reference.com... [2] http://carm.org... [3] http://www.wouldjesusdiscriminate.org...