Dear Dan,

«I'm not all that interested in your religious views.»

My philosophy and religion are intertwined, but bearing your request in mind, I will endeavour to respond in philosophical terms only.

«I am left scratching my head when you say we are not human.»

Excellent! So everyone should: pondering who you are is the best pursuit.

Now it is good that you don't say "I am scratching me head", this means that you are already aware that you are separate from your head. Same for any other part of your body: should, God-forbid, that part be cut off, you still will remain no less you than you are now. Even if you lost your memory or your sanity, it would still be the same YOU who lost it, just the same, the one who once had no head, the one who one day will no longer have a head and the one who presently scratches his head.

Humans and human brains in particular are excellent machinery, but still a piece of material machinery. The same could be extended to the human mind, if you believe that it exists separately from the human body (but I won't expand of it, in case you don't).

So humans are essentially physical objects and like all objects (material and if you believe in the immaterial, then that too), are operated on by the laws and forces of physics (or an extension thereof for the immaterial, if it exists). Though they may have memory, just as computers have, humans are still just objects, not subjects, for they have no subjective experience (or else every particle of matter would).

On the other hand, YOU do have subjective experience. You cannot prove it to others, but you know it too well for yourself - and that set you apart from all objects, humans included.

//To the recent Senate committee hearing, one member of the Looney Left said, with a straight face, "People are free to hold certain religious beliefs, but should not be allowed to express them."

This is a direct attack on freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of conscience, and any other type of freedom we've come to expect in a civil society.//

Seems to me that if Christians don't want to be oppressed and discriminated against like that, the very best thing they could do would be to lead by example and not oppress or discriminate against other people.

I mean, it's a bit Matthew 7:3 to cry foul when anti-religious people say "People are free to hold certain religious beliefs, but should not be allowed to express them.", only to then turn around and say "People are free to be gay, but should not be free express that by actually having a relationship with somebody of the same sex."

Toni, all these issues are collateral to the main overarching point, and that is, there are those of us who may feel sorry, even pity for someone incarcerated inside a body of the wrong gender, but you know, we really don't care.
You were dealt this hand by nature, we had nothing to do with it.
You're the one in turmoil if you are the queer.
You deal with it, I neither have to nor want to, so why the hell am I and the rest of society, persecuted and attacked for something we didn't do and don't want to know about.
Our angst is the fact that these social misfits have 'forced' their misfortunes onto the rest of us, without being invited and with malice and prejudice.
So excuse me if I don't give a sh!t about a handfull of 'freaks' but it is not us who are making trouble or unsettling good people, because we don't have a problem, it is they who insist in getting in our faces, and in so doing have alienated the wider community.
And so it is that everything was just fine before we were thrown this bucket of excrement and told we had to like it, well we don't, on both counts.
It is a fact that the way things were, worked just fine, and so it is that things should go back to the way they were, so we can all live happily ever after.

Dear Toni,

First, I agree with what you said:

«Seems to me that if Christians don't want to be oppressed and discriminated against like that, the very best thing they could do would be to lead by example and not oppress or discriminate against other people.»

I just wanted to comment about the example you provided:

«"People are free to be gay, but should not be free express that by actually having a relationship with somebody of the same sex."»

Gay people do not express it by having same-sex relationships - they express it by provokingly shouting, demonstrating and parading sexuality. People who have relationships with somebody of the same sex are homosexuals, not gay, and I can't see why anyone should have a problem with them.

//Gay people do not express it by having same-sex relationships - they express it by provokingly shouting, demonstrating and parading sexuality.//

Bollocks, most of the gay people I have met don't go in for any of that carry-on.

//People who have relationships with somebody of the same sex are homosexuals//

Correct.

//not gay//

Incorrect. People who have relationships with somebody of the same sex are definitely gay, because gay is a synonym of homosexual. When used in the context of human sexuality, 'gay' and 'homosexual' share the same meaning. If you don't believe me, then have a look at what the Oxford has to say on the matter:

http://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gay

QED

//so why the hell am I and the rest of society, persecuted and attacked//

Gosh, how awful for you. Do you mind sharing with us the specific examples of persecution you've suffered?