Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself
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People who have no defense for their actions and who know just enough Bible to try to throw up a feeble attack on believers, trying to cover their wretched self, often bring up the two passages Ax posted.
It's laughable, it's so bad. Let us examine what Jesus is talking about when judging. As in most things Biblical, context is paramount. Also illuminating is having a bit of a clue about the OT. Many people do not realize, over half of what Jesus said, is found almost verbatim in many of the Old Testament books, such as Genesis, Isiah and others.
Mathew 7:1-6 is part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is clearly speaking about hypocritical judgement. The point of 7:1 is to guard your judgements, especially if one is guilty of what one is judging.
Consider this passage out of John 7:
21 Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one work, and you all marvel. 22 Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? 24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
Again, this is talking about hypocritical judgement. The second verse Ax referenced John 8:7, is Jesus addressing a group of men who wish to stone the very harlot they had been having sex with.
None of that says Christians should not engage in righteous judgement. We are told to read, study and to discern that which is good and to not do that which is clearly delineated by Scripture as being bad. As Paul said in Galatians, Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
So, wrong is wrong. Pornography is wrong. Prostitution is wrong. And if Ax gets his rocks off by viewing child pornography or performing sex acts with children, that is wrong.
While the Christian should certainly self-examine and not hypocritically judge, no Christian should equivocate or not call out that which is clearly wrong.
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The libertarian argument is a much better one than the bogus JC quotes, still you can't help thinking a lot of people are getting damaged by this.
OTOH, we don't ban alcohol, or violent movies, or fatty foods, or lots of other things that probably aren't that great for us, because essentially they're fun. I dare say fatty foods and alcohol kill more people than pornography.
The preaching can get a bit old, too. We all do it, of course. You should hear me when I get started on industrial safety. I can literally talk for minutes about it.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
I dare say fatty foods...kill more people
That's questionable. Remembrer when they told us eggs were bad for us because cholesterol?
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@George-K said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
I dare say fatty foods...kill more people
That's questionable. Remembrer when they told us eggs were bad for us because cholesterol?
OK, obesity kills more people. And those people eat a lot of fatty and sugary food. I suppose it's possible to become obese from eating too much broccoli, but I don't suppose it's ever been accomplished.
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The libertarian argument is a much better one than the bogus JC quotes, still you can't help thinking a lot of people are getting damaged by this.
“Bogus JC quotes”. Makes sense to me.
Too bad about people being damaged by it all. Am sure it happens but so long as they are consenting adults it is of no concern to me. A bit like gambling. It’s a human vice.
Best that can be done is to regulate it through licensing and other fees and levies.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
The libertarian argument is a much better one than the bogus JC quotes, still you can't help thinking a lot of people are getting damaged by this.
OTOH, we don't ban alcohol, or violent movies, or fatty foods, or lots of other things that probably aren't that great for us, because essentially they're fun. I dare say fatty foods and alcohol kill more people than pornography.
The preaching can get a bit old, too. We all do it, of course. You should hear me when I get started on industrial safety. I can literally talk for minutes about it.
Is prostitution fun? Is it a victimless crime? How about pornography? Maybe just child sex pornography is bad?
Even in a simply sectarian world, libertarianism won't work. Too much human wreckage and mess to clean up. Rules work. Good laws work. Societies can agree on what is good for that society and try to steer people in that direction by legal and other means. Simple shaming used to be quite effective.
Is it perfect? No. Neither is Man. But anarchy is not the answer and I think most people inherently know that.
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I think law at it's most basic level is codified morality. I think societies decide at which level bad morals cause severe societal problems or societal decline and enact laws to control undesirable behavior.
If this be true, then usually the most effective government is the one closest to the people, so I think much of this is best done at a state level. However, I'm sure some things can be agreed upon to be almost universally bad for society and those laws could be federal in nature.
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@Jolly said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
I think law at it's most basic level is codified morality.
That's one way of looking it at. I would prefer to say that it's codifying the protection of the individual. So, in that case murder is clearly illegal, as is sexual abuse, robbery etc.
Pornography, drug use, and gambling, just to pick three topics, become a little more problematic from this perspective, since people are choosing to become involved in an activity that may be harmful to themselves.. I think a great disservice has been done over many years in treating drug addicts as criminals.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
@Jolly said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
I think law at it's most basic level is codified morality.
That's one way of looking it at. I would prefer to say that it's codifying the protection of the individual. So, in that case murder is clearly illegal, as is sexual abuse, robbery etc.
Protection of the individual is more to my thinking as well. The notion of codifying morality conjures up something entirely different from the Western world’s past that is more nasty and brutish than what has come to characterise an open society of today.
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Wait… tell me more about the German shepherd and the girl…
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@Klaus said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
@Jolly said in Selling Digital Pieces of Yourself:
You've been to Ax's
dungeonbasement?Funny you should ask, but I have actually met Ax and his family multiple times.
Yeah, me too. Ax is alright.
(That'll be $5, Ax)