Opinion Free Debate?

[Professor Smooth]

I'm in the mood for a debate. But I thought it would be interesting to leave out all personal beliefs. Here are a couple ideas to start off.

Marijuana: Legalize it or keep it illegal?

Abortion: Ban or let it be?

Gay Marriage: Yes, no?

Homosexuality: Expression of love or depraved fetish?

10 Commandments in front of a Court House: Problem or not?

The Death Penalty: Live and let live or let God sort 'em out?

Existance of a God: Does it matter?

Argue away, but try to support your argument with facts instead of personal, ethical, or moral beliefs. I can leave my usually harsh personal beliefs outside the thread if everyone else is game.

[Denyer]

Marijuana: is a plant.

Abortion: popular soup ingredient amongst a minority of Chinese.

Gay marriage: involves two consenting adults.

Homosexuality: occurs in many species.

Ten commandments in front of a court house: much like other historical curios.

Death penalties: involve premeditated killing and have been known to be erroneous.

Existence of a god or gods, mattering: rather depends on the attitude of the god or gods.

[Metal Vendetta]

Marijuana: It's no different to having a beer - beer contains cannabinoids anyway.

Abortion: It's an individual issue, like euthanasia. Let it be.

Gay Marriage: Yes please

Homosexuality: Expression of love

10 Commandments in front of a Court House: Well Moses himself was a mass-murdering dickhead so it seems appropriate to have the hypocrisy on display in today's culture as well.

The Death Penalty: Yeah, with the 10 Commandments in front of the electric chair. "Thou shall not kill". We've been killing each other in the name of justice for years, why stop now? In fact, is there a society in the world that doesn't kill either their own or another society's human beings?

Existence of a God: Does it matter? Yes, if people believe it, 'cause it's people who do stuff in his name. God almost never does anything, as far as I can tell, whether he exists or not.

[Stormwolf]

Marijuana: Legalize it, a mayor in the Netherlands is trying to legalize the growing of marijuane to control it better. In effect all the drug dealers will be out of jobs very soon. And people don't really get a kick out of it anymore because it's legal.

Abortion: let it be, a couple should decide this on their own.

Gay Marriage: We've had Gay marriage for many years in the Netherlands, I don't see what the problem is with it.

Homosexuality: Got no problems with it.

10 Commandments in front of a Court House: I don't think that a piece of fiction (the bible) should be used to make any decisions that have grave consequenses.

The Death Penalty: Why not, some guys kill and rape and get into their old habits again.

Existance of a God: Nope, don't believe in him.

[Professor Smooth]

Marijuana: This is less harmful that alcohol and tobacco. If they are legal, then common sense dictates that this should be as well.

Abortion: Banning abortion woud be legislating on the basis of "what could have happened." Before the baby is born, there's no guarantee that it would have been. The mother could have falled down the stairs the day after she was scheduled for the procedure and lost the pregnancy.

Gay Marriage: Marriage is a religious creation and should be the sole responsibility of those orginizations. However, since marriage is now the word for state sanctioned unions (and, can be performed by a judge or ship captain with no religious affiliation) this no longer holds true. Gay marriage does not hurt anybody and should not be legislated againt.

Homosexuality: People do it. It does not hurt anybody. It's none of anybody else's business, really.

10 Commandments in front of a Court House: There is no reason these should be removed. Judges have the right to decorate their courthouses any way they see fit. Simply because the 10 Commandments have religious significance does not mean that they should not be allowed. The government is strictly prohibited from making laws that prohibit freedom of expression. The judge's form of expression involves a religious symbol.

The Death Penalty: In the cases of people who could never reasonably be expected to be released without a further body-count, this option makes sense. Keeping killers around other killers obviously leads to more killing (killing other prisoners is still murder) so why not just save time, energy, and money to kill these people? It's hypocritical, of course.

Existance of a God: I do not know. I don't think it matters. What matters is what people do in the name of a God that may no exist. The problem lies with people, not God (if it (or they) exist.