Re: Again absurd...

I am not offended - I really wanted to know what your thoughts were.

My understanding is that we are granted life, liberty and pursuit of happiness as god-given rights - everything else is gravy (at least according to the constitution). But, the caveat is, under "liberty" you could theoreticaly throw just about anything you want under that heading. Freedom for this, freedom for that. So, who decides?

God has given us these freedoms, or in other words they are or should be innate to our existence on this planet. An atheist might say that simply being alive gives us these freedoms, and that they do not come from God. Our luck is living in this country where the goverment, at least theoretically if not in total practice, allows these freedoms to prosper.

Just would also like to mention that not all abortions stem from promiscuity. I know that was a minor point of your post, but it was really the only part that even *slightly* offended me. :)

Because I do believe in a higher power, I totally get what you mean about being accountable to a moral authority. I call mine God, or sometimes "higher power". But, there is also conscience, and I think it is very possible to answer to the higher authority of one's own conscience. The interesting question to me is, if one does not believe in a higher spiritual power, where does that conscience come from, as in the case of atheists, for instance. A recent study I saw on one of those 20/20 type news shows is that it is in the brain - that humans naturally have a pretty strong sense of right and wrong that is apparent from early childhood, unless there has been an injury or something is impaired in that area of the brain. I have 2 people in my life who are staunch atheists, whose parents were also atheists, and every single one of them could run moral circles around some other people I know who are devout in their religion. So, to sum, I think it is possible to be moralistic and be an atheist.

Anyway, interesting subject!