Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics

[StealthySkeptic]

Well, I was actually looking more for reasons why people are in favor of the five things Catholics can't vote for, was interested in hearing the other side. Are these things right? Are they benefitial to society? Why? What are the problems with the opposing view?

Focusing things on the priciples of secularism doesn't really answers why these things should be voted for. The problem I see with what you are saying is that in this view voting "impartially" seems to be equated with supporting those things and it is also assumed that opposing and legistating against it means a violation of secular principles. But this really need not be the case.

Dolorian, simply opposing these things doesn't violate the principle of secularism, of course not... But opposing any of these things because of your religion and wanting to legislate against them with your religion as a legal paradigm violates clearly the principle of secularism - Since the church is regulating public decisions indirectly.

As for being against or in favour of any of those five matters, I think it's mostly a question of choice - If you're not a Catholic you have a much greater freedom to support those things, but it doesn't mean you have to. Many people think all atheists are nice liberal people but there's lot of prejudiced atheists out there who dislike gays as much as Christians - And most pro-choice people I know are atheists or at least non religious, but then again I don't know a lot of devout Christians in real life. Human cloning is always a controversial issue, I have mixed views on it, there are pros and cons, the same can be said for euthanasia, I support it, but I wouldn't do it nor would I euthanize anyone. As for stem cell research involving embryos, I haven't made enough research on it so I cannot comment the problem.

I don't think being a non believer per se makes you automatically socially liberal, but it does make you more likely, you won't find many atheists against gay marriage, and even those who are against abortion morally/ethically will be pro-choice to not impose their personal morality on others. Even when it comes to euthanasia, you may not be capable of doing it, but most atheists would say I wouldn't do it, but other people can do as they wish.

I think a lot of the reason for that being the case is because atheists (somewhat in this country, but more so in others) have gone through (loosly) similar minority stresses as LGBT people, so that means that they can be more likely to support gay marriage. It's little wonder, then, that Richard Dawkins' campaign to encourage closeted atheists to come out is called the Out Campaign.