Wayfarer

There is an exact parallel - Love is the end (or goal) of the law. Thus the law is a skilful means of achieving love. But I think there has been a str...

I don't think Trump is competent at anything. It's just that he has sorrounded himself with people that are easily gamed. He knows how to game them, b...

There's an insightful comment today from David Brooks saying that Trump has no friends, because he has a narcissistic personality disorder which preve...

Again, there's a Buddhist parable which addresses the question of the role of 'law' or 'commandments' in the spiritual life, which is 'the parable of ...

In Buddhism, morality or ethical conduct (sila) is one of the three supports, the other two being wisdom (prajna) and concentration (actually more lik...

'Survival of the fittest' was coined by Herbert Spencer, a slightly younger contemporary of Darwin. However as Jamalrob says, Darwin didn't object to ...

Desert-dwellers think the ocean a fantasy.

I agree the Republican party has some culpability for the Trump fiasco, but at the end of the day, it is incumbent on the electorate to make a respons...

I am somewhat interested in US politics. I have been appalled since Day 1 that Trump could even be considered for high office, his entire campaign is ...

This is a false although widespread conception of Nirvana. Indeed when the first Mahayana Buddhist scriptures were translated into European languages,...

There's a difference between atheism in the sense of the rejection of the spiritual, and the attempt to re-interpret the meaning of spiritual teaching...

How so, Woz?

I am not and don't want to be a Christian apologist, but neither am I atheist. I think Biblical texts need to be interpreted allegorically, but that d...

'“Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pa...

I'm not referring to the substance of the debate, but never mind. I notice the OP has never returned.

Beware the tangled roots......

I think what you're describing is close to certain strains in Catholic social democratic movements. They tend towards being politically progressive bu...

'Vindictivness', 'jealousy', etc, are analogies. They depict 'the holy' in a kind of anthropomorphic way, so as to get through the thick skulls of tri...

The point of 'public institutions' is that they imply public approval.

That is 'what consenting adults do in private'. The argument when homosexual acts were de-criminalised was that society had no business policing what ...

thank you BC.

Thanks BC. I remember Gore Vidal saying something similar. What in your experience is the overall tendency towards stable/steady long-term relationshi...

In this matter, there is room for diversity in everything except for opinion. //edit// so, you have simply made the point I started out with in this t...

So do you think this should be subject to legal sanction?

It is a matter of simple fact that persons of the same gender do not have the biological pre-requisites to procreate. That is not a matter of definiti...

That's not 'my definition', Willow, it's not peculiar to me. Up until the last 5 minutes (speaking metaphorically) everyone saw it like that.

I didn't use the term 'religious' - I said biological, cultural and social. I think the role of gender complementarity is basic to the meaning of marr...

Sure. I have two grown sons, both of them disagree vehemently with my attitude. If one of them were gay, I guess I would deal with it. But I don't agr...

Which, again, rests on re-definition of key terms, especially 'discrimination', and what is considered behaviorally normative. But it's no use arguing...

Well, one can argue that marriage is the union of opposites; that the complementary roles of gender, biological, sociological, and cultural, are basic...

That is exactly the point. So acceptance is declared 'the new normal'; those who don't accept it are now declared on the outer, as I said before. You ...

The question we were discussing was whether the opposition to a plebiscite was based on the desire to suppress or avoid a public debate on the issue -...

No, the quoted aphorism is non-sectarian, common to all schools; it is from the Dhammapada. I interpret it as saying 'you alone are responsible for yo...

I notice here in Australia there's an uptick in the employment category 'non-routine cognitive work'. That would include such things as technical writ...

@Baden - there's a very low bar for homophobia, which you immediately classify with racism. It illustrates the point - agreement or ostracism, there i...

Right. So my view is that Eich's sacking was an egregious example of the ostracism of a competent businessman, for holding a politically incorrect vie...

So, your 'factual observation' is that Brendan Eich was sacked as the head of Mozilla (Eich being one of the founders of the company, and the inventor...

Do you agree that the plebiscite ought to be cancelled because the debate will encourage hate speech?

OK, not literally outlawing. It's the argument that having a debate on the plebiscite is an opportunity for hate speech, and that, therefore, there ou...

What do you mean? That supporing Proposition 8 was bad for business, so he had to be fired? Oh, I get it. So when I shop, I should know the position o...

Well, if it causes you not to insult and belittle others because of your beliefs, that is all that can be expected from a civil code, and at least it ...

I'm simply commenting on the dynamics and the politics of the debate. I haven't said anything about God or evil-doers, this is a thread about 'politic...

Yeah there's a philosopher called Michael Ruse, philosopher of science, who has written a lot on the 'culture wars' around Darwinism. He's conscientio...

Natural selection as a biological theory, is one matter, but 'survival of the fittest', a term coined by Spencer, then spreads out into social darwini...

The conservatives view homosexual acts as immoral. The progressives view such criticisms as bigotry. Good luck in finding a middle ground there. As re...

(That is where I take issue with Protestantism, 'salvation by faith' and 'total depravity'. I think it leads to a kind of fatalism and dogmatism. It i...

That is basically a positivist or naturalist account - that human culture passes through phases, beginning with the animist, then theistic, then metap...

Great analysis. So, at risk of being extremely non-PC, here is how that pans out in respect of gay rights - that gay advocacy has appropriated the lan...

Hey, gosh, sorry, but the idea was expressed in such a way that it was very difficult to understand what you mean. So, no, I don't think I read it lik...