Lord Lupus, with all due respect, prove to me it is a genetic disorder.
Ash, maybe it is time you actually got out of your little shell and learned about how the world really works. Especially about how the world worked back then. First, you must get away from the premise that the Christian god is the ultimate end-all and be-all of everything. Christianity has ****ized not just Judaism, but other religions as well. The Judaic god was never omniscient, or omnipotent, or omni- anything. It is the Christians, while inflating their importance in the world, who started teaching this.
Also, as far as Bible verses go, we could sit for days bantering back and forth using Bible verses to counter each other’s arguments. Even Jesus himself warned against Satan using the Bible to justify his position, but think of this, which one of us is Satan?
K, so as far as the Sodom and Gomorrah story goes, yes they did demand the angels, but nowhere did it say they wanted them for sexual acts. By the way, if you want proof of how the Bible has been mistranslated all you need to do is go talk to your local rabbi. Unfortunately there is no way to explain to you without you knowing Hebrew.
So when committing abominations, do you really consider homosexual acts the only abomination? Even considering this was pre-10 Commandments what exactly made up abominations? I refuse to believe homosexual acts could be considered the only abomination. As established before, homosexual acts were considered unclean because they did not help establish the society. All of the laws in the Torah were established with the ultimate goal of building a large society.
Touching a menstruating woman was considered unclean at any time, not just during holy ceremonies, by the way. As was eating pork. I wonder how many Christians today realize they are still bound, technically, to the laws of the Torah? Remember Jesus himself said he wasn’t coming to replace the Law, but to fulfill it.
I love to see you second-guessing the Christian god when you talk about his “will for his chosen people.” It’s so nice to see people who are so in touch with their god that they can put words in his mouth. By the way, whenever you refer to the Christian god you are supposed to capitalize the references out of respect. I don’t because I don’t believe the Christian figment of imagination is any stronger or more deserving than any other religion’s.
Here’s some HIV/AIDS statistics and where they come from:
Women are becoming increasingly affected by HIV. Approximately 50%, or 19.2 million, of the 38.6 million adults living with HIV or AIDS worldwide are women.
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats.htm#cumaids
An estimated 5 million new HIV infections occurred worldwide during 2002; that is, about 14,000 infections each day. More than 95 percent of these new infections occurred in developing countries.
http://www.unaids.org/worldaidsday/2002/press/Epiupdate.html
(That’s almost 10 every minute)
As of December 31, 2001, 467,910 deaths among people with AIDS had been reported to the CDC. AIDS is now the fifth leading cause of death in the United States among people aged 25 to 44, and is the leading cause of death for black men in this age group.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr50/nvsr50_15.pdf
Here’s another interesting fact sheet if you want to learn more about what is actually happening about HIV/AIDS:
http://www.who.int/emc-hiv/fact_sheets/pdfs/usa_en.pdf
HIV/AIDS is not a “gay” man’s disease. It was labeled that in the United States way back when, but the numbers don’t justify this position when looking at a world picture.
Unfortunately I can only tell you what I know to be facts, and then show you where those facts are supported by credible research. It is up to you to follow through and check out the research, but it would also be helpful (and lend a lot of credibility to you arguments) if you would cite where you get your statistics and information.