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Originally Posted by 3nKrYp7  'Gay marriage' generally refers to the rights of couples to be considered legally married and has nothing, for the most part, to do with religion. I doubt most gay couples are members of organised religion, instead they want the government and courts to recognise them as engaged in a legal relationship and receive the same acknowledgement and rights straight couples get. |
First, off straight couples don't get the same rights as married couples unless they are married. I have no issue with a Gay couple given the same rights as straight couples, however marrage is a religious (Judeo-Christian) ethic that is not universal to other religions. As such I feel that marrage should only be considered marrage when indorsed by the religious institution and I know several which permit gay marrage.
I don't think the state should issue marrage licences, as marrage is a religious concept, therefore if one's religion permits it the state can have no say in the free exercise of religion. By the way, several humanist philosophies are considered religious-philosophies including Athieism.
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Originally Posted by 3nKrYp7 Most countries, including America, provide basic services freely to the people. Stuff like police and fire departments and schools are the most obvious examples, a country couldn't operate efficiently without them.With a Universal healthcare system you would still have the same choices you have now with regards to medical plans but an additional Government funded one if, for any reason, your health insurance fails to cover an illness. I live in a country with Universal healthcare and have access to private facilities, which I've used.
I'm not looking to get into a Public/Private healthcare system Vs. Private one debate, I just thought I'd point that out. |
I have no issue with police, fire departments and so on, except when they interupt my free exercise of my rights. Public schools are used more for indocturination then education, so I find them useless and very much agree with my rights as a parent to home school my kids. Most fire departments in my area are volunteer fire departments meaning the people in the town volunteer to act as the fire department. Cops are joke...
Free heal care is a vastly more complicated issue then your trying to play out. First off, I prefer preventative medicines. Secondly, I prefer nature herbs to extracted, filtered and concentrated chemical drugs. Third, I believe everyone should have a right to choose in how they are treated. Ask some of the vets on this board how the VAMCs treat us and thats what government healcare gets you. You have the options they give you alone and thats often a) treatment on their terms and b) suffer alone at home. And here is the punch line, if I try to use herbs to treat myself and the .gov crowd feels its interfering with their healthcare, they send in the police to arrest me as a casualty of the "Drug War."