California overturns ban on same-sex marriage

[Deckard]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

...but then again, you're the expert.

LOL, no not at all. You've missed the point.

Rewriting and reinterpreting according to the tolerances of the different ages has been a continuous component of Christianity. It wasn't too long ago that Christians were using the Bible - the NEW Testament - both to keep women from voting ("Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, not to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." - 1 Timothy 2:11) and to condone slavery ("Slaves, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward." - 1 Peter 2:18). Guess what? As public attitudes changed, people found it increasingly difficult to ignore what their own minds were telling them, and gradually decided to "reinterpret" what was previously regarded as unambiguous dogma. If Christianity is still around in 200 years time, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see gay marriage accepted, and the rules re-interpreted once again - or even re-worded, like the way 'Slaves' has since been changed to 'Servants' in that latter verse – to accomodate the more enlightened general outlook of people.

Let's face it, I've yet to read any convincing reasons to oppose the marriage of two people of the same sex other than religious ones - that it says so in the Bible/Quran/etc. Though I'd be interested to hear any non-religious arguments put forward.

Genuinely I don't mean to sound arrogant, but when it comes to justifying moral positions, Christians might as well quote me the script of a Spiderman comic. In fact at least in that I might expect to see some of the fruits of the last 1000-2000 years of enlightenment thought, of knowledge and progress (much as I appreciate that some of the 'nicer stuff' in the New Testament was to some degree ahead of its time).

The point though is, not only are the rules of these holy books conceived entirely by man rather than some God or other, but also that they're on a continuous path of being reinterpreted according to what is acceptable at any given time, and the issue of gay marriage appears to represent one such transitionary issue.