Various Moral Issues

I posted something about this somewhere recently.

I think there is no evidence that humans exist elsewhere in the universe, but in compiling a list of ways that God might yet be disproved, I hit upon idea that one way would be if human-like beings on another planet had no salvation history involving God and Christ, because the Bible teaches that God is Lord of all (PHP 2:9-11). (Caveat: If they are included in the Great Commission, their history would be like the OT.)

Over to you.

I can't find it now, and boy did I try to, but I remember a thread in this forum's distant past about "little green savior" postulating that there might be another planet where Jesus walked among them as a little alien and died on their cross.

The obvious objection to this hypothesis is that Jesus died once and for all time for all sin. There was no qualifier in Scripture about dying once and for all time, for this planet.

Let's move to D for Drinking.

Would Christians in USA support lowering the drinking age to 18?

Okay, and D for all kinds of Drug use and abuse, including legalization of marijuana.

All right, i'll go first.
Taking a page out of the gun enthusiasts i would say that all drugs should be legal. They are a tool.
It is up to you to have strength to not abuse them.

For example, i live in USA where guns are treated like candy in terms of ownership. I don't have one, don't own one and no one can make me get one under any circumstance.
But i live here. So i have no problems with saying NO.

That is the Darwin approach. Instead of keeping harmful things away from people, let them have access to them and weed out the ones who are not strong enough to stay away from them.

There is some logic in that. Osha would have nervous fits if you try to apply it to workplace safety, but there is some logic in it.

Let's move to D for Drinking.

Would Christians in USA support lowering the drinking age to 18?

All right, i'll go first.
Taking a page out of the gun enthusiasts i would say that all drugs should be legal. They are a tool.
It is up to you to have strength to not abuse them.

In general, no.
I would make exceptions for members of the military.

Big difference.... drugs are not protected in our Constitution. They are not an inalienable right. Same way with automobiles, and nearly anything else.

You could argue that drugs would be somewhat protected under the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", but I don't think that would pass any Constitutional legal test.

Firearms are protected, because without them, NONE of our rights could be defended..

Perhaps there are others, but I guess these will give us the idea. Now, how should we apply these teachings to the question about driving and legalization?

This depends on how one views the teachings of the Bible which for me, the teachings are the matter of the heart, where you could drop a Christian in the middle of worst sin and not participate in sin.
But if you're treating the Bible as an engineering book where you ask questions such as "Where in the Bible does it say this or that" you might have a few problems in morality because the Bible doesn't speak about 90% of the things we do on a daily basis.

What is the basis for a citizen to vote at 18, die for his country at 18 but not drink at 18?

I tend to support all drugs being legal, because i know that having guns in the constitution or not makes no difference in the liberties of a country.

That's why I said I would make an exception for military members. People in the military are usually, not always, but usually more mature, or at least more disciplined than the average 18 yr old still living at home, having momma doing all his laundry for him...
If an 18 yr old is old enough to put on the uniform and fight for the country, then they should be allowed to drink, if they choose.

That's why I said I would make an exception for military members. People in the military are usually, not always, but usually more mature, or at least more disciplined than the average 18 yr old still living at home, having momma doing all his laundry for him...
If an 18 yr old is old enough to put on the uniform and fight for the country, then they should be allowed to drink, if they choose.

I used to go to a Dennys restaurant every night. It was the last restaurant open at night right before the marine base.
Consistently the number one problem there at night, especially on the weekends, were drunk marines. Young guys, in training or just out. They caused more problems and tried to start the most fights.
Alcohol fueled machismo based off of thinking they were bad a$$ because they were marines. Bullies is what they basically were.
So I'm not so sure going through the military necessarily makes then more mature.

Tell that to the British.... they learned differently.
Apparently the Japanese emperor thought differently during WWII as well....

I used to go to a Dennys restaurant every night. It was the last restaurant open at night right before the marine base.
Consistently the number one problem there at night, especially on the weekends, were drunk marines. Young guys, in training or just out. They caused more problems and tried to start the most fights.
Alcohol fueled machismo based off of thinking they were bad a$$ because they were marines. Bullies is what they basically were.
So I'm not so sure going through the military necessarily makes then more mature.

Also to Susanna, Tall_Timbers, Magenta, daisyseesthesun and Mem,

I introduced this topic because I hope to help "open the eyes of the blind" (IS 42:7) by sharing my own history. I knew very little about fetal development when I was in my twenties, and "pro-choice" sounded like a good option so I was a "birthist", but when I was confronted by pictures of a seven-month-old fetus in the womb and a seven-month-old premature but viable baby outside the womb, I realized that geographical location is not a valid basis for defining personhood because there is no qualitative change that occurs at birth, merely a difference in the mode of breathing and feeding.

Thus, I was led to consider the crucial question: when does a developing fetus become a human person with the God-given right to civil life so that to kill it is murder and warrants punishment? The conceptionist viewpoint is certainly right that a qualitative change occurs when the chromosomes in the egg and sperm are united, and learning about fetal development should enable birthists to realize that the advent of personhood definitely occurs by the seventh month or viability, when a premature baby is frequently able to survive.

Are there any changes between conception and viability that might reasonably/logically be viewed as indicative of the beginning of personality? There is one possibility: the counterpart of the basis doctors use for determining when an adult person no longer is alive. This basis is brain death or the absence of certain brain wave activity detected by an electroencephalo-gram (EEG). We might call this stage “sentience”, referring to the level of brain activity which indicates the fetus has brain life and is therefore a person, who should be granted the civil right to life. If our best definition of sentient death is the cessation of these brain waves, then it is logical and consistent to view sentient life as beginning at least when these brain waves are detectable. Thus, I think every open-minded and truth-seeking person should agree that the fetus becomes sentient and a legal person at least by that stage of development.

This is only a partial solution, but it is a big step in the right direction toward no abortion except in order to save the life of the mother. It recognizes that a gray area still exists from conception until sentience, so people may still reasonably disagree about the status of the fetus during this period, which may change as science improves. This view permits most forms of birth control. Implementing this solution requires educating every post-pubescent person about fetal development until society develops a new consensus that when a fetus becomes sentient, abortion is a type of murder and should be punished appropriately.

Love in Christ, GWH