Originally posted by Only-now
Next, no where in the First Amendment does it mention marriage, nor is marriage a right. It is a privelage, as any judge or preist can choose not to marry anyone for any reason. Marriage is also not just religious, it is also legal. Thus, and amendment would state that the GOVERNMENT would not LEGALLY recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex. That doesn't mention religion as the reason, and it is perfectly okay for people to vote for that amendment because they are religious. Now, if the amendment said "We are not recognizing gay marriage because it is against Christianity"..then you would have a point. It doesn't matter what the motivation is..in fact religious motivation is a good thing. Look at slavery...do you not think that many people who wanted to abolish it were not using religious reasons such as God creating everyone equal as a motivation? (don't even bring up slavery in the Bible because it has nothing to do with those who choose to use it for this interpretation..it is religious nonetheless) It isn't as if slavery was bad for the country economically...it was very important and essential. So..I guess we shouldn't have abolished it because people were agreeing with it for religious reasons. I know there were other reasons to abolish it etc, but I am just pointing that out.
The ONLY reason gay marriage is an issue is because it's considered sinful in a few religions. There are no other grounds on which to abolish it. It's a legal loophole, allowing laws to be enforced for solely religious reasons. If you can give me a non-religious reason for gay marriage to be prohibited, then you'll have a point. But I don't think there are any.

You can't really make an accurate comparison with the slavery issue. There are obvious non-religious reasons for slavery to be considered wrong. Not to mention, if you know your history, religion was also used to defend slavery in many cases.

My point was not that there's a clear legal enforcement of a specific religion in our country, my point is that because of the social support Christianity has, it ends up being reflected in legal decisions. Don't try to tell me our president had any reasons other than "this is a sin in Christianity" to try to pass that marriage amendment.

Originally posted by Ghamu
Just curious how you square the part about "if not more free" to say you hate God in the U.S. with the fact that atheists are actively discriminated against there? I'd say there's a pretty big difference between "noone really caring" and harassment and in some cases even violence being visited upon you.[/B]
That's an excellent point. I've never been victim to any violent harassment for my beliefs, but there's a definite unfair social outlook on what is and is not socially acceptable to say when it comes to religion vs. atheism. In American society, it's considered perfectly fine for a Christian to say that they know their religion is the Truth and the one true God is the Christian God. Yet I can't count the number of times I've been told I'm being rude or insensitive or disrespectful for simply saying I don't believe in God/Christianity, or that I view any modern religion like any mythology.

Sure, legally both parties are allowed to state their beliefs, but society is more accepting of Christians doing it than atheists.

I've been called a Satanist (which is absurd considering atheists don't believe in Satan), an anti-christ. I've had people tell me I must have no morals or I must be miserable all the time because I don't follow a religion. Yet when I turn around and say, "Well, I don't believe the Bible is true, I view it like a mythology," I'm told I'm being incredibly offensive. I have to walk on eggshells not to offend anyone with my views.

There's definitely an unfair social attitude towards atheists in this country because we're a minority and Christians are the incredible majority.