Dear Jason,
God destroyed Sodom because of sin for If there had been 10 righteous men the city would have been spared. The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so great that the Lord came down to see for himself.
God is not interested in the degree of sin for sin can not be in the presence of God. Only the blood of the lamb appeases Gods righteous anger therefore wash your robe in the blood of the lamb. Not a physical happening but a spiritual happening. Jesus said" My word is spirit, and is life to them that find it". Read the book of John and it will answer your questions if you trust God enough to receive his word. God does not expect you to have complete knowledge at the first meeting for that comes with relationship over the passing of time. Trust must be built and that takes time, effort, and energy.

Vanna education is good, but unless the foundation of Godly character is laid in a persons life they will be swept along with every foolish opinion that comes along. When my youngest went to uni he was offered drugs and other distractions but as we had laid a foundation of Gods Word he knew right from wrong and did not deviate from his chosen path and passed with Honors receiving the job offer he was working towards as a design engineer in the power industry within 2 weeks.

Richie10,
My objection is the denigration of males and heterosexuality by the staff of many universities.

This is outside of the anti-discrimination policies of most universities.

I have also noticed denigration of Christianity, which is denigration of a religion, and this is also outside the anti-discrimination policies of most universities.

There is also the hiding of information such as hiding statistics regards de-facto relationships, single parenting etc, which means universities are not educating the public at all, but presenting a biased picture of society.

Overall, the bias and corruption of universities means that very little is reliable from universities, and most should be closed with technical courses being undertaken in technical colleges.

Or parents can be sending their children to universities in other countries that are not as corrupt and dishonest as Australian universities have become.

"God destroyed Sodom because of sin for If there had been 10 righteous men the city would have been spared. The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so great that the Lord came down to see for himself."

Our religious friends on OLO continually remind us of man's sinful or 'fallen' nature. If that is the way God made us, why destroy an entire city because of sin. If the design is faulty why not seek explanation from the designer

Runner,

”I don't consider not accepting same sex marriage as oppressing people who practice that behaviour. “
By constantly vilifying homosexuals by maintaining that they are lawbreakers and sinners, religions like yours stigmatise homosexuals; and by advocating discrimination of homosexuals, your religion aims to oppress homosexual people.
Just like slave owners justified oppressing black people with quotes from the Bible, you justify oppressing and discriminating against homosexuals.

Vilification of homosexual people should be tossed on the same crap-heap as hate speech.

“In my eyes the eyes of God they are no difference from the man and woman living together in sin.”
At least a man and woman living in sin, can decide at any time to get married. Homosexual couples, thanks to religions and general homophobia, do not have that option, but are forced to ‘live in sin’ when they want to be with each other. Read what RObert said on this matter. Are homosexuals NEVER allowed to express their love for one another?

“God simply designed one man to be with one woman in marriage.”
From the POV of a Christian, Pynchme and Jason had a good point: God must’ve had his reasons for creating about 10% (yes that’s the rough estimate even in the animal world) of people same-sex orientated.
If his intention was to create heterosexual couples only, then why didn’t he?
Pelican has a point: Why don’t you blame the designer for faulty designs? Imagine that your God was a manufacturer and in your opinion, there was something wrong with 10% of his products. You would be able to hold him responsible, or sue him, right? To blame the products for being defect, and to demand them to change, or call them evil, would be foolish.

“Yes for a long time he allowed polygamy but Jesus made it clear that it was never God's best.”
Thank you for admitting that there are no moral absolutes and that your God is not as omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient as you made him out to be ;)
Perhaps the manufacturor of God (which were only human) should be blamed.

“You are asking me to disagree with our Maker on what is right and wrong.”
But Runner, now that you have admitted that God doesn’t know *everything*, wouldn’t it be possible God was simply wrong on the issue of homosexuality just as he was on polygamy?

”Jesus words and teachings are miles above any human philosophy.”
So why is it that Jesus was on the side of the slave-owners instead of the slaves and slave owners justified slavery with quotes from the Bible? No modern philosopher would justify slavery.

“I don't see this view as oppressing those practicing homosexuality any more than oppressing those who live together in sin (claiming to love and be committed to one another).”
One can be committed to one another without getting married. Getting married does not guarantee commitment. High divorce rates will tell you that this is a fact.

”It is the gay lobby that is pushing the issue. Why should it matter so much to them that Christians disapprove of their behaviour.”
It matters because the fundies lobby interferes with their freedom and rights.
And why should it matter to you that the gay lobby is pushing the issue? If you think that same-sex marriage is wrong, simply do not get married to someone of the same sex. What other people do is their own business as long as they don’t interfere with other people’s rights and freedom.

”It is the gay lobby that is showing total intolerance in not allowing another view to their own.”
Why would gays, as a minority group, need to be tolerant of intolerance?

"You fail to acknowledge that some paedophiles also claim that they were born with genes that made them that way. "
I feel for paedophiles if they really are born with a sexual orientation towards children. They would need help to deal with this.

You fail to acknowledge that there is a difference between consensual relationships between same-sex people and sexual relationships between minors (who cannot consent) and adults, which creates child victims.

No Pelican God did not make us faulty. He made us with fee will to chose who we listened to and it is still our choice.