[Vision2020] MITCH ALBOM: After bitterness: Will we let winneractually lead us?

[Art Deco aka W. Fox]

Dick, et al,

I think the country will continue to be deeply divided.

It is the underlying world views/approach to life of different people that fuel 
this division.  Unlike scientific disagreements, which can be solved by 
experiementation and observation, political, religious, and values disagreement 
so far have not been overly amenable to this approach.  Facts sometimes help 
solve these kind of problems, but not always and generally not.  [Nor is there 
any real agreement between the various Christian sects on high profile 
ethical/political issues.

Example:  Take the gay-marriage issue:  It seems to me that the state has a very 
strong and real interest in promoting stable, responsible, and happy martial 
relationships and also allowing persons as much freedom as is compatible with 
overall social order/stable organization (as opposed to social 
disoprganization).

Current research seems to show that same sex partnerships (as opposed to causal 
affairs) are more stable than heterosexual couplings of the same type.  I fail 
to see how committed couples express themselves sexually is any real concern of 
the state -- in fact, the sexual practices that are hypocritically condemned by 
critics of homosexual relations are widely practiced by heterosexual couples 
without such condemnation.

Shoildn't the state encourage rather than discourage good citizens to spend 
their lives (or part of their lives) with a partner or partners they love and 
enjoy being with?

Of course, much opposition to gay-marriage as well as other practices and 
actions is generated by religious/superstitious beliefs.  Unfortunately, there 
is no guaranteed way to tell at this point in history which religion of tens of 
thousands, if any, is the "true" one.  It appears that over the course of record 
human history, religious/superstitious belief has been one the major causes of 
human strife.  People don't generally kill and main over what they believe is 
the cause of measles;  they certainly do all of these things and more horrendous 
acts propelled by unverifable religious/superstitious beliefs.

It is particularly frightening when the leader of a country proclaims that 
he/she is carrying out the alleged will of some alleged god(s).  How can you 
really tell if such assertions are actually true? -- Especially when the 
assertions of different leaders and their rleigious/superstitious underpinnings 
are contradictory to each other?

Wayne

Art Deco  (Wayne Fox)
deco at moscow.com
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