A rather elegant defense of “gay marriage” (when did it stop just being “marriage”?) by a “Heterosexual, Married, North Carolinian Father Of Three”, whose state is marshaling voters to define marriage as between a man and a woman can be found at this LINK.

One erudite quote:

LGBT people are citizens. I have friends (some of whom were married in other states years ago) who love each other as dearly as I love my own wife (and who have been committed to each other for just as long). It pains me to know that there are people who reject the validity of these relationships, and who wish to deny these couples the same benefits that other married couples are afforded. These committed, same-sex couples are North Carolinians. They contribute to the economy, they pay taxes, and they certainly do not deserve to be treated as second-class citizens by anyone. Just as it is hard to believe that we once denied marriage rights to interracial couples, or voting rights to women and African-Americans, we will look back upon this time with the same disbelief and shame.

And if you haven’t seen The Invention of Lying, you are missing something else!

A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I’m An Atheist

By Ricky Gervais

Why don’t you believe in God? I get that question all the time. I always try to give a sensitive, reasoned answer. This is usually awkward, time consuming and pointless. People who believe in God don’t need proof of his existence, and they certainly don’t want evidence to the contrary. They are happy with their belief. They even say things like “it’s true to me” and “it’s faith.” I still give my logical answer because I feel that not being honest would be patronizing and impolite. It is ironic therefore that “I don’t believe in God because there is absolutely no scientific evidence for his existence and from what I’ve heard the very definition is a logical impossibility in this known universe,” comes across as both patronizing and impolite.

Arrogance is another accusation. Which seems particularly unfair. Science seeks the truth. And it does not discriminate. For better or worse it finds things out. Science is humble. It knows what it knows and it knows what it doesn’t know. It bases its conclusions and beliefs on hard evidence – - evidence that is constantly updated and upgraded. It doesn’t get offended when new facts come along. It embraces the body of knowledge. It doesn’t hold on to medieval practices because they are tradition. If it did, you wouldn’t get a shot of penicillin, you’d pop a leach down your trousers and pray. Whatever you “believe,” this is not as effective as medicine. Again you can say, “It works for me,” but so do placebos. My point being, I’m saying God doesn’t exist. I’m not saying faith doesn’t exist. I know faith exists. I see it all the time. But believing in something doesn’t make it true. Hoping that something is true doesn’t make it true. The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.
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First Presidency trumps Quorum of the Twelve President.

High-ranking LDS leader weighs in on same-sex attraction

The Salt Lake Tribune

Mormons may not know until the hereafter what causes same-sex attraction, but “God loves all his children” and expects everyone to do the same, an LDS Church leader said Sunday.

While the message — delivered to more than 200,000 Utah Mormons — may not seem significant, the messenger was.

As second counselor in the governing First Presidency, Dieter F. Uchtdorf is one of the highest-ranking leaders in the hierarchy of the nearly 14 million member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to address the thorny topic of whether same-sex attraction is inborn.

The gentle tone and emphasis of Uchtdorf’s remarks — spoken at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City and beamed to dozens of church buildings — came in the wake of an earlier speech by Boyd K. Packer, senior member of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
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The Huffington Post reports the latest from the premier scientist/thinker of our age:

Stephen Hawking: God NOT Needed For Creation

LONDON — Physicist Stephen Hawking says God wasn’t necessary for the creation of the universe.
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Apparently, the straight, white, Mormon, male patriarchy have all of the answers.

Homosexuality ‘not in your DNA,’ says LDS leader
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I heard a teaser for this story last night, but seldom watch channel 2 here in Salt Lake. Here is the story as published on the KUTV website:

Number Of Atheists And Non-Believers On The Rise
Reported by: Fields Moseley | KUTV

We often hear this country was built on a belief in God, but others say it is really built on the freedom to choose. More and more people in the United States are choosing no religion, and that is true here in Utah. Atheists meet weekly and hold more formal meetings on a monthly basis.
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My oldest friend (we met in 1964) had surgery yesterday in Denver to replace a shoulder and arm riddled with cancer — with that of a donor cadaver. Apparently the cancer had not spread beyond the bone and the doctors feel this will be successful.

It amazes me something that a few years ago would have resulted in the loss of an entire arm and shoulder, is now solvable with simply (I say that because I’m not the doctor who spent several hours doing it) changing the underpinnings.

We have come a long way medically in the last few years, but still do not have a cure for cancer or kidney disease — or the common cold.

On a similar note, as of last week, the panic-demic about the H1N1 influenza bug spreading around the world has resulted in much less “thinning of the herd” than projected — at least so far. Two people had died of the H1N1 flu in the US. Over the last year, 31,000 had died of the common flu.

Pound-wise, penny foolish.

The ESO [European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere] has released their findings on the discovery of a new “earth-like” planet rotating around a dwarf red sun.