Here's an essay I wrote that an instructor of mine encouraged me to submit to a news paper. Though I'll warn you, it's an attack on politics and morality. Since morality is involed I let you know now I lean a bit to the left on some moral issues. So if you're religious and conservative you might get a bit put off.


America, it’s a great country, but it has it’s fair share of problems. In fact it has more than just it’s fair share of problems; this country suffers from gross hypocrisy, idiotic laws, and idiotic social norms. The media’s portrayal of men, women and various groups do quite a bit to irritate me; however the thing that sets me off the most would be the beliefs people hold, no matter how archaic, that are based on religion and imposed on others. One of the things that infuriates me the most is when people try to force their beliefs on others, and two of the most guilty groups of this are the Christians and the Muslims. The majority of the people forcing their beliefs on other people in America are Christians, I’ll go after them. Though let me get something straight first, I am aware that not all Christians think like this. I am attacking only the Christians who are against, gay marriages, abortion, stem cell research and cloning - simply out of some religious faith - and would force their beliefs on others. Because of these issues I’ve gone from a devout Catholic to an agnostic. Now let us begin.

Gay Marriage: what is it about this subject that causes people to shit a brick then toss that shit-brick onto a fan? One slogan that these “conservative” (I use this term for lack of a better one) Christians like to throw around is “Protect the sanctity of marriage.” Excuse me, sanctity? Would they care to clarify? This country has a fifty percent divorce rate and this institution has become a publicity tool for celebrities to stay in the lime light (Brittany Spears ring a bell?). What ever sanctity marriage had has been flushed down the drain by straight people, not by gay people, nor the dreaded immoral “liberal“ legislator. Marriage has been made into a mockery and it has been brought to this level by straight people. The whole point of marriage is to cement the love of two people. Thus is it more wrong for a straight person to use this as a tool to hold on to a fading fame, or for two women to solidify their love? Oh, but God said that it’s wrong for a man to lie with another man or woman to lie with another woman, some of these people will argue. But did God actually say that, or was actually quoted from a dubious source as the Bible? The only proof that these people have to support their argument is an ancient text that isn’t even consistent with itself. Gay people are still people and the fact that they are ostracized simply because of what some ancient book says seems moronic to me. If these people want to go complaining about immoral people violating marriage, they should go point the finger to these people who use this a tool for fun and fame, not at the people who want marriage for a legitimate reason.

Really what is so bad about a woman in love with another woman or a man with another man? Some of these “conservatives” will claim that homosexuality is unnatural. Yet marriage itself is unnatural as well if you think about it. No other animals “get married;“ marriage is a man made thing, so these “Christian” people are complaining about applying an unnatural thing (marriage) to another supposedly unnatural thing (homosexuality). Actually I’ve often wondered if homosexuality was actually some kind of natural mechanism to stave off over reproduction. In any case, the argument that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because homosexuality is supposedly unnatural is flawed, because marriage itself is unnatural.

Moving on to the next issue “conservatives“ like to force their beliefs on others, is abortion. Now abortion is something that should remain strictly a private thing with the mother and the unborn she is carrying. Before I go further in this hellfire, however, I should clarify my position on this issue, since it cannot survive outside the womb by itself, I don’t consider the fetus truly alive until it is out of the womb. With that said, I honestly don’t care what the mother does with it until birth as long as her actions aren’t something that will lead to the baby being born disabled. Either bring it to term healthy or abort it. Now on the other hand, these “conservatives” believe that abortion equals “child murder.“ These “conservatives” clearly don’t believe the same thing I do. Now I wouldn’t have such a huge problem with that if they didn’t try to force that belief on to other people. What right do they have to tell a pregnant woman or girl in a lot of cases, what she can and can’t do to her body? Even if abortions were made illegal, women will still try to get this procedure done. If kept legal women can go to the proper facilities and have the procedure done with a professional. Made illegal then women will have to resort to underground “clinics” run by people with dubious credentials. These “conservatives” have no right to force their will upon an woman. How would these “conservatives” like it if someone decreed that they would be required to be organ donors and donate the rest of their bodies to science.

What makes the “conservative” stance on abortion even more funny is our “pro-life” fuehrer who states that we must “promote a culture of life.” The people supporting Der Fuehrer are against abortion, yet they support a guy who blows people up and sends people to get blown up. Now maybe I missed it somewhere, but when does waging war have anything to do with promoting life? Another thing Mr. Culture of Life failed to consider is that if abortion is made illegal even more people could die. Right now we have women going into abortion clinics and having the procedure done, and no one dies. If these women are forced to resort to unsavory characters, it’s likely that the person will screw-up the procedure and the woman may die because of it; or the women may try to abort it themselves and inadvertently cause their own deaths. “Culture of Life” indeed, at what cost? Some of these people will argue that the fetus is a separate entity from the mother. I could be persuaded to believe that, but using that argument shouldn’t the woman have a right to remove a foreign object from her body? With that argument, however cold it may sound, the fetus is a separate being and if the woman wants it removed from her body wouldn’t survival be the fetus’s problem not hers? Since an outlawing of abortion would most likely cause more deaths, the “pro-life” stance of Der Fuehrer and his followers is pro-life only in name.

Another topic “conservatives“ like to force their will upon, is stem-cell research. However by stopping work on stem-cell research “conservatives” are holding back progress. The possibilities that could come from researching the potential of stem cells are nearly endless. Possible cures for diabetes, for various genetic disorders, for spinal injuries; there are plethora of other possibilities. A report from www.Religioustolerance.org states that “Some researchers regard them as offering the greatest potential for the alleviation of human suffering since the development of antibiotics. Over 100 million Americans suffer from diseases that may eventually be treated more effectively with stem cells or even cured. These include heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer” (Robinson). Obviously, with this research so many lives could be saved or changed for the better. Yet these “conservatives” will stop at nothing to prevent this, all to protect something that isn’t human. They will argue that an embryo will undoubtedly become a human, but an embryo and a person are not the same thing. Just because something will become another thing, doesn’t mean the two things are one in the same. It is like saying a caterpillar is a butterfly.

The fact is many of these embryos come from fertility clinics, and are marked for destruction anyway. They’re going to be destroyed either way, so why not put them to use in helping other people. Some of the “conservatives” say that by doing this we’ll be degrading the value of human life. I’m sorry but if I view these embryos the same way these people do, I would view them as heroes. What they’re dying for will help countless people in the future. Now if they try to argue that the embryos don’t count as heroes because this wasn’t a choice made by the embryos themselves, I’ll compare the embryos to soldiers. Soldiers have little to no say about where they are deployed and whether or not they want to follow orders that will likely lead to their deaths. Our glorious fuehrer can send soldiers to die to save others and they’ll be hailed as heroes, yet they had no say in that decision. Again how can some of these people go and say that stem cell research will cheapen human life when they support a man who calls himself a “war president?”

Like with stem cell and abortion research I fail to see anything wrong with cloning, another issue about which “conservative“ Christians like to force their will onto others. “Conservatives” believe that cloning is playing God. As with stem cells, there are many possibilities for cloning, such as creating body parts and organs for people, and in an extreme sci-fi style case, clones could be used to swell the ranks of the military. I support a more limited cloning program that would only include creating replacement body parts and organs; I don’t support cloning a whole person. The benefits of a limited cloning program are quite obvious. Let’s say you get into some freak accident and lose both legs; your life would be severely altered to say the least. Now what if we could clone your legs and “reattach” them? At most you’d spend a considerable amount of time in therapy. Or let us say you develop lung cancer, with the way things currently are, you’d have to sit on an organ waiting list for a very long time. Now if the doctors could clone you a new lung, you’d only have to be in the hospital for how ever long it would take to grow the new lung.

The argument against cloning is “you can’t play God.” The way I see it is like this: if the Christian God is indeed out there, then he gave us this knowledge to put to use. Back when aviation was still in it’s fetal state, people were arguing that “if man were meant to fly, God would have given him wings.” The way I see it, this God didn’t give us wings, but he gave us a way to create our own wings. He has also given us a way to create a new life or another way to heal people. If this God the Christians believe in is so full of love, I would find it extremely hard to believe that he would not want us to use this knowledge to heal people. The potential for human cloning is so great, Simon Smith states that “The suffering that can be relieved is staggering. This new technology heralds a new era of unparalleled advancement in medicine if people will release their fears and let the benefits begin. Why should another child die from leukemia when if the technology is allowed we should be able to cure it in a few years time” (Smith). This is not a matter of “playing God” this is a matter of having the power to help people. By doing all they can to prevent development on stem-cell based technologies, these “conservatives” only prolong the suffering of their fellow humans.


There you have it, all the reasons why the Christian “conservative” arguments against gay marriages, abortions, stem cell research, and cloning are flawed, and ought to be done away with. Now I’m by no means saying that these people should be forcefully shut-up, I would be just as bad as they are. What I am saying is that these people should be allowed to voice their opinion but that’s about it. Gay Marriages just doesn’t seem worth fighting against, when the core of your argument is what some god supposedly said. With abortions, what gives these people the right to tell a woman what she can and can’t do to her body. What is the point of letting stem cells slated for destruction go to waste? Finally when we have a way to “fix” our bodies, why shouldn’t we utilize that knowledge? Progress cannot be stopped and unless these people are willing to go along with it, they will be left behind and these people have absolutely no right to hold back people who don’t agree with them at all. That is why these particular ideals should be completely done away with.