>>>mmmm...I don't think that's what they're elected to do at all. You shouldn't have an opinion about something, then turn it into the law. For example...emperor Bush wants a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. He says "In the eyes of God, marriage is between a man a woman."....ummmmm well ok. I mean ok if you belive in God (or as I see it - suffer from mass delusion)... and belive in this particilar God...etc etc etc. In other words - wether or not you think same-sex marriage is right or wrong is your OPINION. The thing is you dont make your OPINION a freakn constitutional amendment! Hey I don't dig the idea of male-male marriages either (eeewwww) - but hey it's just my opinion - I aint gonna jump up and down about it and wine and moan till I get the government to turn my opinion into the law. Now if this was a law that was strictly allowing female-female marriage, hey now I'm all for that! But again...it's just my opinion. Hey if emperor Bush wants to make is
>>>bible-thumping opinions the law...then what about all the other stuff in this book? Like can I have slaves, kill people for working on Sundays, and whoohoo someone commited blaspheme - looks like we getta stone them to death! arrrrggghhh!
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>>Although I do believe in God, I also see this tendency as worrying - perhaps frightening. We have seen in other countries what can happen when a government turns their opinion into law - some things that have happened is that centuries-old monuments were destroyed, practically all rights were taken from women, and anybody who had the "wrong" faith (for example, Bahá'ís in Irán) risked to be executed on fabricated or irrelevant charges.
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>Well God and Religion seem to be the leading cause of death and hate in the world - and its been that way forever. Heck that's what just caused 9/11 and blah blah blah...

Now this is about the only thing I disagree with. I don't remember who, but someone once said, "Religion is not the cause of hate and destruction, merely the excuse."

>Just my opinion - but hey if you want to belive in taking snakes with posioned apples, magical burning bushes, people living in whales, heck people living to be 900 years old, a big floating entity in the sky that "knows all" (ooohhhaaahhh), a dude poping back to life after he's been dead, vigins giving birth (uhhh prior to the test tube baby of course), people walking on water - water turning to wine (or was it blood...) ... well anyway... in MY opinion that seems a tad ridicilious for a grown, rational person. But like I said - this is JUST my opinion - and hey no offense met towards any ..uhhh "belivers". But again I aint gonna try to make it a law that people can't think this way - or make it a law that they have too. I will agree with about being concerned about governments turning opinion into law - it's a very dangerous move, and one that we here in the USA should not be silent about. People are already becoming afraid to have a voice here - heck I said something in a 7-11
>the other day along the lines of "I think the war in Iraq is wrong" and the clown in line behind me get really REALLY bent out of shape and said I was "unamerican". I saw a poll the other day that asked a bunch of middle-school aged kids if they thought the government should try to silence people with unpopular views...and like 40% of them said yes! Geeeze .... see ya spend all yer money building smart-bombs and not on education, and yer freakn bombs end up smarter than the kids! aaarrrgggHH!