From: eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Abstinence is the only answer
Date: 26 Aug 92 13:29:10 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

mpolen@suntory.mips.com (Michael Polen) writes:
eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK) writes:
|> |Thank you Emil, for explaining that all of your opinions about sex, family,
|> |and abortion are based in your southern baptist religion.  How about
|> |letting some of the rest of us live by the opinions of our religions?
|> 	The only opinions written that I KNOW are based on the
|> congregation I used to attend is written in #3. Number 1 is not a
|> religious statement at all. #2 is my understanding of how marriage is
|> perceived by society, again not religious.
|> 	The Southern Baptists are also quite split, if you didn't
|> already know, between moderates and fundamentalists. I've had one pastor
|> from each camp preach sermons to me back home. We have a doctrine as
|> other religions are also based on their own; what it is, you'll have to
|> look it up in the World Almanac.
|> 	Of course, in some Southern Baptist Churches, dancing and
|> drinking are absolute sins too. If they knew I'd been learning the
|> lambada in the den of the Blue Devils... :)
|> 	I offered my religious opinions to invoke a discussion and a
|> debate, to demonstrate the opinions of others who I know well; I did
|> mention "at least in my church" and "according to my pastor." I am
|> interested to know how "your" religion differs from "my" religion on
|> that last point.

:I am an athiest.  That means that I think that the Bible is a cute
:collection of stories, that religion is a crutch people use to avoid
:having to take responsibility for their own lives, and that God is
:a fiction that prevents people from having to deal with their won
:strengths and weaknesses.
:
:As an athiest, I believe in the intent of the golden rule, in the worth
:of the individual, and in the importance of getting along as a society.
:I view the only real impact of religion as creating differences among
:us that prevent us from accomplishing the last item.  Their is nothing
:so interesting as the intolerance of those who teach tolerance, the 
:hipocracy of those that profess morality, and the claim that any "member
:of my religion that is found trespassing isn't really a good member of
:my religion."

I agree that I wonder about some preachers who don't practice what they
preach. I don't find them to be very sound in their morality. Being a
member of a religious congregation is not like joining a fraternity or
attending a college. 

:On the other hand, I hold an open mind on the ability of members of
:any religion to join with me in this society.  Kind of like the golden
:rule.  You don't want to have to live by all of my standards, and I
:don't want to have to live by all of yours.  The difference between 
:me and most of the religious, is that they don't accept my right to
:live by my standards.

I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet people from different
nations (member of the International Students Association, even though I
am American) and different cultures and religions. We don't force each
other to live by each others standards, but we celebrate our differences
in every conversation and social activity we participate in. The memory
that sticks out in my mind is a scene where an Ethiopian girl and a
Chinese boy were dancing the lambada my freshman year. Talk about
culture clash. :)

I don't mind talking to people of differing opinions (which turns out to
be most people). If I don't accept the way you choose to live your life,
I am not going to preach you into doing something you don't want to
do. But in every culture and every religion represented in the people
I've met, they have all shared the opinion that parents should care and
be responsible to their children. (I'll admit your more religious
friends probably will worry about you no matter how many times you tell
them not to. It's the "save the world" mentality, you know. :) )
It is this responsibility and lack of discipline that is the main cause
of society's problems. 

-- 
Emil Thomas Chuck (Duke BME '93)		eyc@acpub.duke.edu
I have entered the week of transition from my summer job at NIH to fall
semester at Duke. I will not be able to reply to everyone. If you want
to continue a thread, please email replies to me until I can post again.