Dear platypus1900,

The speaker was obviously bothered by atheists. However, God remains a human invention. You can choose to believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse. Many children do. I prefer not to accept something for which there is no proof only belief.

There is no proof for the existence of God, angels, devils, demons, Zeus, Apollo, Superman, Odin or any of the other figments of human imagination.

Unfortunately, both Christianity and Islam are missionary religions. As such they bug people who don't believe they do. I don't mind if you believe in God. Believe what you will. That is your business. It doesn't go the other way. You apparently are bothered that I don't believe in God. I haven't tried to persuade you of anything. I would appreciate you not trying that missionary business on me. Don't you think I have thought out my position? I will be 88 in a couple of months.

However, if you want to read something you can read "God is a Human Invention".

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10065 will get it. I wrote it, and I don't appreciate being bugged. Believe what you believe and let others believe what they will believe.

You wrote that you respect my position. If you did you wouldn't try to push your beliefs on me. Frankly I don't respect your position because I think it is nonsense. However, I think you have a right to believe what you will even though I think it is nonsense. Please treat me the same.

Dear platypus1900,

The answer to atheism is not polemics, Bible bashing or burning people at the stake although burning at the stake has been tried many times and always works to shut people up. The only answer to atheism is proof that there is a God.

There is no such proof so you will just have to live with us atheists unless you decide as many have done before to murder us.

david f,

Part of your earlier post at 1.42pm today, at page 9 of this thread, is troubling:

> My sense of morality tells me the death penalty is immoral. I was a juror in a murder trial. I voted to find the man guilty since the evidence showed it. The death penalty was not at issue. I feel if I had been subjected to the same pressures that he had I would have done the same thing.<

Do you really mean that, although you are against capital punishment, if subjected to sufficient pressure you would commit murder? (And feel justified doing so?)

I find this very hard to believe.

As for the general discussion, abortion, I am not keen on it, but accept the right of women to self-determination in this matter, and in general, but feel that late-term abortion should only be approved where life or health (of mother or foetus) is at risk.
My greatest concern with the availability of abortion is that it should not promote unfettered promiscuity or a reckless attitude towards conception - for, to me, this would represent an unsavoury attitude towards sex and human relationships, and inappropriate to societal responsibility.
Though I would not subscribe to the withholding of abortion to a multiple 'offender', I would suggest that some 'education' ought be mandatory in such instances.
However, I see abortion as a better option than having young single women struggling with ever-increasing offspring for whom they may offer only poor lifetime prospects.
TBC>

Cont'd:
Sanctity of life is an important moral tenet, and, though we may make exception when it comes to abortion, under suitable circumstances, there can be no exception when it comes to the willing and conscious murder of a living, breathing human being.
Those who seek to conflate these two distinct situations are at best dishonest and at worst being ratbags.
It is this sanctity which warrants an eye-for-an-eye in many murder cases (though not all), and use of the abortion debate to justify not applying capital punishment to convicted cold-blooded murderers is a heinous abuse of moral judgement.

csteele,

Blaming God for miscarriages is a weird attitude for anyone, let alone for such as yourself.

Saltpetre wrote; "Do you really mean that, although you are against capital punishment, if subjected to sufficient pressure you would commit murder? (And feel justified doing so?)"

At the trial I listened to the story of the circumstances leading up to the murder. Although one cannot know for sure what one would do in a hypothetical situation I felt that I would have behaved in the same way as the murderer if I had been in his situation. Whether I would have felt justified or not is another matter.

I don't think anyone can be sure what they would do in an extreme situation. I hope I would not have behaved as he did, and, as I haven't been subjected to those circumstances, I cannot be sure that I would. However, I think I probably would have.

I can be happy that I haven't been in his position.

Dear Davidf,

Please don't try to live up to your namesake as that would entail you lusting after and seducing another man's wife (particularly if you see her bathing on the roof). Then having her husband killed to claim her.

Although if she were particularly beautiful... God might forgive you.