Religion needs to stay out of sexual ethics

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qft

You got it slightly backward.

Translators - often operating off a set of doctrinal assumptions [reason I tend to prefer the KJV] - see in the text the meaning they expecxt. Very well known principle of perception - we tend to see and hear and taste what we expect.

The differences in translation are not the basis for doctrinal difference, but the result.

Not a good book to base your life on? But that is not the point. The Bible - pretty much all versions of the NT - makes it clear that the books [ta biblia] do not self interpret. It is not - for the Christian, the Jewish position requires a different statement - an instruction manual [though some who do not read closely enough think it is]. Like certain other document collections, it is, shall we say, a coded reference book useful in the transmission of messages.

I would explain precisely why the variety of translations and editions - including the Wicked Bible [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible] - but I do not think you are sophisticated enough. PBS, after all.

well then how will you with a 100% determination tell us what the real context of the bible is?(rhetorical)

i can easily understand that it is a way of conveying information through anecdotes, of moral and other issues, but they will all have been warped to some extent by time.
and even then they are as subjective and biased as the people that use them, this is why it is inherently difficult to base an existense purely on the contents, they need context ie. the real world.
in the real world sex has been shown to have some very beneficial health and psychological benefits, some religions supress that in certain goups and it will hurt people one way or the other.
be it from lack of honest sex ed or the psychological consequences intense shaming, and sometimes much worse, can incur on a human being.

so what gives religion a right to dictate or attain "official" capacity on the matters of sex?

I hear that the funny thing about translating ancient greek is that they use a whole different set of rules depending on whether you are translating the bible.

As you clearly recognize, I don't. I can't. Anyone who claims he can is a charlatan or deceived. I cannot do it for Hamlet either. Another text much edited and interpreted, though simpler and rarely seen as authoritative.



Not my entire point - we need more than the context of the world - but accurate enough.



In the real world it has also been shown quite adequately that sex has some very deleterious effects on physical and mental health. Some religions have pushed or forced sex in certain groups which has hurt people. Time once more to point out that both suppression and compulsion have come from secular groups and organizations as well as religious organizations. In some cases societal norms have been patched into religious formulations. In other cases religious policies have become societal norms.

Dictating behavior is a facet of organizations, whether religious or other. Every organization does it.

A religious belief system - we really need to distinguish between the organization and the belief system - may report a divine entity demanding or condemning certain bewhaviors. But it is [compare the guns don't kill people line] not Communism that sent people to the chilly East - it was the state.

None of the translations offered by Vexcalibur (ty Vex) shows the Bible "setting the price" of a prostitute.

They all sound like gibberish though.

No. It hasn't.

So rape, venereal disease, child molestation, and anal or vaginal scarring [no point trying for a complete list, those who can think will get it] are, in your enlightened opinion, all positively beneficial?

You must have a lovely life.

You were talking about sex altogether, not how one goes about it so you're being dishonest. Sex itself doesn't have bad physical or mental effects on yourself or others, but if you go about it in a detrimental or selfish way it could.

^ That

I like to think that sex in a committed, loving relationship has tons of beneficial effects for both your mind and your body. For once, my anecdotal experience says that, and for two, google seems to agree with me, so.

STDs, going to the bathroom and not washing your hands could also kill you, but going to the bathroom is beneficial.

Rape, child molestation, etc, forcing people to eat 3 Kg of cake daily will harm them psychologically and physically as well. Doesn't make eating a bad thing.

I can also relate anal and vaginal scarring to over eating and its negative effects as well.

Having healthy sex is akin to eating healthy and I don't think will have but positive impact in your life. We have long ago stopped wondering about a sky giant things you should be eating and decided to better think for ourselves and use scientific (nutritional) information to decide what eating healthy is. I believe that if we do the same with sex, we will also live better.

Theists are losing the youth on the gay marriage issue. Let them keep arguing against gay marriage. Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake.

The Greek of the NT is not linguistically identical to that of Homer nor to the Classical Attic - slightly different grammar and lexicon.

But as to translation "rules". a Classicist, a Linguist, and an NT scholar use exactly thesame principles. There may be seminarians who think differently, and - yes - there are partisan translators who will slant an interpretation to fit their dogma [like I done said]. But that is reprehensible.

What, and give the Ad Hominem Trolls even more ammunition?

If we do not make explicit our terms and discuss straight, there will be nothing for anyone but the insincere.

If we do not play by your ad hoc rules, then we will all be better off for it.

Get over yourself.

Maybe sexual ethics needs religion to stay out of it more than religion needs to stay out of sexual ethics