Indiana's Govenor Signs 'Religious Freedom' Bill

[robvalue]

OK well, I've decided I will give it one more try.

I'm going to lay out why I think your line of thinking is wrong, and to show you how I think you can be better than this. I'd like you to go away and really think about it rather than just reply and tell me that I'm wrong too. You don't have to reply at all. I hope this doesn't come off as patronizing, I am genuinely trying to help. This is aimed at any theist who thinks it's ok to discriminate against homosexuals.

1. I assume you are Christian. The number one rule of christian morality is "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". Although not unique to christianity, this is the absolute core of all morality. Using that one rule, you can't go far wrong. You are advocating breaking that rule. You would not like to be refused service by someone because they decided you were inferior in some way. Think about how you would feel. And I'm not talking about just one incident, I'm talking about widespread discrimination against you. If one person is allowed to do it freely, there's nothing to stop anyone with a grudge doing it. Imagine if all atheists decided they wouldn't serve theists. Then imagine atheism becomes so popular 99% of the population are atheist.

2. Christianity also teaches you to not be judgemental. Deeming a whole category of people as inferior, and treating them worse accordingly, is about the most judgmental way you could behave. If, according to you, they are already inferior, why would you want to make their lives more difficult? In the hope that they will go off and kill themselves, ridding you of their uselessness? What do you gain by discriminating against them? They are born that way, not of their choosing. Why do you want to punish them for that? Do you really feel so much better than them that you can't have anything to do with them, that they will infect you in some way?

3. Your reason for homosexuals being inferior makes no sense anyway. I can just as easily make this argument. There are two genders, so one of them must be superior. Imagine what would happen if all of one gender died out. If it was women, that would be it. Humanity would end. But if men all died out, the women could use sperm banks and be able to repopulate the earth. Therefor, by the same reason as your argument, women are superior to men. Therefor, it's OK to discriminate against men, because they are inferior. If you think that argument is stupid, look how closely it models your own one.

4. [This could be way off, but it's just my guess at what happened] I believe that as part of your religious indoctrination, it was drummed into you that homosexuality is "wrong". But no adequate rational reason was given during indoctrination, because there isn't one. Eventually it has become clear that just saying "because the bible says it's wrong" isn't enough to try and justify discrimination. You said you gave a theist perspective, but your argument had nothing to do with theism, it was some judgement about human survival. You need a way of making yourself feel like the prejudice is justified, so you either came up with or latched onto this argument as sounding convincing. As I have hopefully shown, it is not only very unconvincing, you're breaking many of your own religious morals by enforcing it. If you're not careful, I'll be a better christian than you!

As it happens, my parents are homophobes too. But I discarded their ideas of discrimination because it breaks the very core of my morality.

I hope you will think about it, and realize that I'm only trying to help. I'm not trying to force you to do anything, I'm only trying to get you to really think about your beliefs and why you hold them. If I didn't care, I wouldn't even bother typing any of this.