David f.

You shared your concerns and asked for mine. Like your concerns, mine are from what I've seen and tried to deal with. I come from a background of being slightly broken. Speed is alway a ticking clock that I lose the race on every time. With that in mind I notice more when someone has a struggle and is handicapped.

My concerns for the world? Look after the widow and the orphan. Tend to the sick and visit those in prison. The world is broken for those who are not on the top of the world, and so compassion is one of the greatest concerns to me. Because throughout my life the two glaring observations that I see is my own faults at not being good enough, as well as the kindness and compassion that I'm blessed to have received that helps me at every age of my life. There are other concerns, but the main one is to help mend a broken and ever breaking world. I'm not that great at meeting these concerns, but they are some of the concerns. How to overcome and push through a struggle whether it's self inflicted or it's something you have no control over. Small things and moves that make it easier to make the right decision or to lessen the burden, are the concerns I see or try to offer.

Porn is like a drug. It is an extra burden. It can do harm to those who watch it, and is both easy to access as well as hard to quit. Those who don't get addicted to meth are better off then those that do and who struggle to get away from it's grip. The same is true with porn. It's a problem in society that breaks many relationships. Divorce rates don't have to be as high as they are if we actually care to make it easier and less of a burden in the everyday lives of people.

Dear NNS,

I don’t know what you mean by broken. People and other animals don’t behave as you would have them behave. Does that mean they are broken?
You have been anthropomorphising birds. Birds do not have marriage so cannot be adulterous. Birds have partners and sometimes have sex with birds other than their partners. There are no standards of sexual morality among other animals and no universal standards among humans. I doubt that there was such a thing as marriage among early humans. They had sex or the species wouldn't have continued. Mothers looked after their offspring or the species wouldn't have continued. The early humans probably lived much like the other animals. There is no reason for birds, or humans for that matter, to follow your standards of morality.

I don’t think that watching pornography is harmful in itself. Addiction to it or patterning one’s real life relationship on what they see in porn can be harmful. Other than that I don’t think it is harmful. Children below puberty I don’t think are particularly interested in it.

I remember watching a debate between DA Arlen Specter and a representative of the ACLU (American Committee for Civil Liberties) on porn. Specter was for banning, and the ACLU man was arguing against it.

Specter went on about how horrible it was and described scenes of depravity in porn. The material had been confiscated in police raids. Specter had gone through a lot of the stuff. The ACLU man outlined Specter’s career as a crime fighter and public servant. As he was doing so Specter swelled up with pride. The ACLU man then said to Specter, “You have spent a lot of time looking at the stuff and getting thoroughly conversant with it?” Specter said, “Yes.” The ACLU man then said, “Doesn’t seem to have hurt you a bit.”

Both Specter and you are trying to put your standards of morality on other people. Maybe you are getting unnecessarily excited

Dear Is Mise,

Your logic is impeccable. Jesus could not be a Christian. However, not only was Jesus not a Christian, he was not the founder of Christianity. Jesus was the leader of a Jewish cult. All or almost all the followers of Jesus were Jews. Paul tried to convert gentiles to the Jewish cult. He succeeded, but what happened to the Jews who were members of the cult. They were wiped out by the Romans in 70 AD and the failed Jewish revolt. Paul was really the founder of Christianity not Jesus.

History is full of lies. Let us not worry about who formed what religion. Let us ponder over whether all the religions created on the earth have achieved the goals they envisaged.That will do a lot of good for the humanity.

To David f.

It's unlikely we're going to come to agreement on pornography. Actually I'm glad that we agree on it as much as we do to at least have it restricted from children and minors. I would like one more challenge for you though. When I've come across the topic of porn in any article or in stories from people's lives. There's never been a positive remark about it. No positive elements that relate to marriage, but instead has been an issue read or heard about that was a defining element leading to divorce. So with this in mind, if you have any source of information of a married couple that wasn't negatively influenced by porn, I'd like to hear it. If you can do better and say that you know of some who think porn in their relationship was a good thing, then yes let me know. Nothing I've seen researched or antidotes heard about porn lead to healthy relationships. For now it seems to be somewhere between open relationships and adultery for the kind of havoc porn does to a relationship. Just a bad idea for any relationship, and for many people an addictive habit they can't kick once they're married. (Look up stats on reason people divorce. Porn is surveyed as a very high percentage for the reason).

As for the birds. I'm sorry for not making it clear. In the animal kingdom where so many species kill the children of the previous father when one takes over as the dominant male in a pack or an animal's family, the small tidbit that many birds are life long partners but unfaithful was a surprise. It was a positive attribute that even if the baby birds were not the father's he would still hunt for them and protect them. In the harsh reality of nature where survival is a top priority, a little bit of surprising family values in the animal kingdom was a refreshing tidbit.

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You might not like my reference to the world being broken. But so far you haven't refuted any of the points I made. Just challenged me on judging animals. I'll make it a step easier for you. In the logic that the world is broken, I'm including myself in that perspective. It's not just everyone sins. It's that everyone struggles and fails, actively or accidentally harms others, and are more self absorbed then not. Everyone has a struggle and a hurdle. In our struggles people can do wonders of compassion, just as easily as they turn into a monster under the pressure and hurt of the world we live in. It's the soup we're brewing in, the environment that we live our entire lives in. And yes it's devastatingly broken.

To Ezhil.

When comparing religions don't group them all together as if they are the same. That said, what goals for the world are you talking about? Is it Buddhist goal to seek enlightenment by denying both pain and pleasure, rewards and harms? Hindu goal to seek a better life for yourself and your next life? Christian goal to seek God, and turn from your sins? Or are they the goals that deal with the community which could be vastly different depending on the religion?

The one thing that I've heard is in most religions is some version of the golden rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated.