[microgood]

I will disagree with you regarding the same arguments being made to control guns as opposed to outlawing drugs or pornography. From a Christian perspective, intoxication itself is a sin and an evil to be avoided. From a Christian perspective, even looking at pornography, much less producing it is sinful. That is not the case with owning a gun. It is not inherently sinful.

Actually you are making my point. TCQ was stating that social conservatives make laws based on harm of individuals or society and I was disputing that in the sense that many seem to be made based on whether they are evil or sinful, not whether they show a demonstrable harm to society.

And although I agree with many of those points, rules prohibiting behavior based on sin is a matter more for the individual or Church rather than rules that should be enforced by government.

If one is trying to rationalize laws based on the greater good, however, the gun and pornography argument are or can be similar.

[Greg F]

Actually you are making my point. TCQ was stating that social conservatives make laws based on harm of individuals or society and I was disputing that in the sense that many seem to be made based on whether they are evil or sinful, not whether they show a demonstrable harm to society.
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Glad we agree on that. I will say that you cannot find a sin that is not demonstrably harmful to someone.

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And although I agree with many of those points, rules prohibiting behavior based on sin is a matter more for the individual or Church rather than rules that should be enforced by government.
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Since all sin hurts people, I disagree. However, most sins are so minor, common and persistent that they are not worth resources to enforce laws against, and since we are all sinners, and we all don’t want to be hounded by anyone with a grudge or anyone with a badge who is having a bad day, I think Christian and non-Christian will be in agreement on a host of things that should not be outlawed but are still sins to a Christian. When you get to murder (read abortion), prostitution, drugs, and the like, you will find most Christians supporting laws against because they are so destructive, so there is a certain amount of cost/benefit analysis involved. The difference I suppose is that the Christian conservative is less likely than an atheist libertarian to worry that he doesn’t have a right to outlaw some destructive behavior. The Christian has a basis for his view that it is wrong.