SubscribeThe decline in the number of children being placed for domestic adoption in Ireland became very marked in the early 1980s, which is when a significant number of Irish couples who found themselves unable to adopt an Irish-born child started to look abroad.... Until the late 1970s this demand was predominantly met by the supply of children born out of wedlock, typically children whose mothers were heavily stigmatised and given no support to care for their children (Kelly 2005). 97% of children born outside marriage were adopted in 1967 compared to just 11% in 1987 and just 1% in 2004. There was no matching fall in the demand for children; indeed infertility rates in Western countries have been rising and are expected to continue to rise (Ledger 2005). [Source]Prior to 1980, unwed mothers were not eligible for state benefit in Ireland. But when the law changed, and single mothers had access to adequate housing, benefit, social and financial support, women made the "choice" to surrender their children vastly less often.
Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?You say His law to should be compromised on terms you have decided are more important than His. Now we are haggling about the size of the compromise. The real stunner is that you feel you are so right that you should be able to subject us all to the same compromise. That in effect, Konolia's Laws should supercede those of God and Man.
Socialite: My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course…
Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds?
Socialite: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!
Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.
7:1-6 We must judge ourselves, and judge of our own acts, but not make our word a law to everybody. We must not judge rashly, nor pass judgment upon our brother without any ground. We must not make the worst of people. Here is a just reproof to those who quarrel with their brethren for small faults, while they allow themselves in greater ones. Some sins are as motes, while others are as beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel. Not that there is any sin little; if it be a mote, or splinter, it is in the eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both are painful and dangerous, and we cannot be easy or well till they are got out. That which charity teaches us to call but a splinter in our brother's eye, true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to call a beam in our own. It is as strange that a man can be in a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a beam in his eye, and not consider it; but the god of this world blinds their minds. Here is a good rule for reprovers; first reform thyself.
Matthew 7:1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.***
3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
***
Matthew 6: And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
**
Matthew 23: 1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
13"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.[c]
25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
1 John, 2: 1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin,(A) we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2(B) He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but(C) also for the sins of the whole world. 3And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we(D) keep his commandments. 4Whoever says "I know him" but does not keep his commandments(E) is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5but whoever(F) keeps his word, in him truly(G) the love of God is perfected.In short, I think you would do well to mind your own business. You have your own work to do.
Theocracies always lead to increased human sufferingYeah, the USSR was such a hotbed of theocracy. Not.
But clearly, this isn't working. Do you have any other ideas?Well, actually for some it has....I don't think I mentioned etc.
"...Religion is a good indicator of attitudes toward sex, but a poor one of sexual behavior, and that this gap is especially wide among teen-agers who identify themselves as evangelical.So those kids fail at a pretty significant rate. And of those who fail, many doubtlessly are choosing to have abortions. Opposing contraceptive education and comprehensive sex education, then, contributes to abortion.
The vast majority of white evangelical adolescents—seventy-four per cent—say that they believe in abstaining from sex before marriage. (Only half of mainline Protestants, and a quarter of Jews, say that they believe in abstinence....But, according to Add Health data, evangelical teen-agers are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestants, and Jews. On average, white evangelical Protestants make their “sexual début”—to use the festive term of social-science researchers—shortly after turning sixteen. Among major religious groups, only black Protestants begin having sex earlier.
Another key difference in behavior, Regnerus reports, is that evangelical Protestant teen-agers are significantly less likely than other groups to use contraception. This could be because evangelicals are also among the most likely to believe that using contraception will send the message that they are looking for sex. It could also be because many evangelicals are steeped in the abstinence movement’s warnings that condoms won’t actually protect them from pregnancy or venereal disease. More provocatively, Regnerus found that only half of sexually active teen-agers who say that they seek guidance from God or the Scriptures when making a tough decision report using contraception every time. By contrast, sixty-nine per cent of sexually active youth who say that they most often follow the counsel of a parent or another trusted adult consistently use protection.
"...I wish, my dear Kepler, that we could have a good laugh together at the extraordinary stupidity of the mob. What do you think of the foremost philosophers of this University? In spite of my oft-repeated efforts and invitations, they have refused, with the obstinacy of a glutted adder, to look at the planets or Moon or my telescope."I think that parallels the situation here.
--"Through which the satellites of Jupiter were visible", Galileo Galilei
"The proposition that the sun is in the center of the world and immovable from its place is absurd, philosophically false, and formally heretical; because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scriptures."
--From the Catholic Church’s indictment of Galileo Galilei, 1633
- The vast majority of people want to reduce the number of abortions (reasons varied and irrelevant)And with your answer, you state that the very things that reduce the abortion rate are, because they are sinful, just as bad as abortion and thus must be rejected, thus keeping the abortion rate as high as possible.
- Societies that have good access to a variety of contraception options, abortion, and comprehensive sex education have lower abortion rates
- Making abortion illegal increases the numbers of women harmed trying to obtain abortions
When scientists say that the carrying capacity of the Earth is 2 billion, they are not forgetting that we have 6 billion already. What they are saying is, that if you add up all the supplies in the world, and divide them up according to the amount that a typical American uses, then there is only enough for 2 billion people.Unless you want to live like a third-worlder, in which case we can actually fit all the Duggans in plus our current population. We all die the next cycle, though, as we'll exceed the carrying capacity completely and fatally.
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"Do you see what it's doing there? I know the ultrasound is pretty grainy, but what it's doing there is metastasizing. Say that with me: me-ta-stas-iz-ing. Neat, huh?"
"It hurts so much, doc."
"Nonsense, it's all in your mind. Wow, this is going to look great in a really big jar."
"What was that?"
"Nothing, nothing. Do you want the lime Jell-O, or the orange flavoured?"
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:15 PM on March 17 [14 favorites]