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Originally Posted by FoolThemAll
No, it's actually the unprotected sex that directly causes these deaths. And while celibate people have gotten AIDS, be it from drug use or bad transfusions, abstinence actually has a very low infection rate. Roughly, zero.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
really? anyone who is abstinent has gotten an STD or pregnant?
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You're right, abstinence only is 100% effective, when people actually bother to follow it, which is relatively few. What's the harm is giving the option of contraceptives? Why not, "abstinence is the best way, but if you're going to anyway, wear a condom"?
As we've seen repeatedly in the United States with abstinence only programs, they
just don't work.
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Originally Posted by FoolThemAll
Good point. The pope really ought to step down as dictator of all Africa and allow others to provide their brands of AIDS prevention as well.
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Can we not go down the drama road, please?
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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
The basics of the church is free will. Everyone has an option and a choice. To not follow the dogma in this case I believe is a venial sin or a minor one, with a major one being a mortal sin. Sins can be forgiven, so there's plenty of option and choice there.
As far as Applewhite's ability to being a spritual leader, it's not much different than Jim Jones or David Karesh. Is it really a good thing to lead your group towards destruction? It doesn't lend for more followers.
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But how can you truly have free will if you're automatically condemned as a sinner if you don't rigidly stick to the dogma? One of the things that always got me, and one that the priests used to joke about quite a bit, was that it's damned near impossible to follow the rules rigidly, because some conflict with others, and some are downright horribly wrong (father's being allowed to sell their daughters into slavery, stubborn/rebellious children are to be put to death, if a woman grabs the genitals of a man attacking her husband, her hand should be cut off, etc).
They were all spiritual leaders, granted, they were all batshit insane, but they're ideals led to the deaths of far fewer than the number that will die because of the pope's decree, and that's the part that's really fucked up to me.