[Mrs. Don-o]

Am I to take it that profit and truth-telling are mutually exclusive? "Profit = bad" would seem to undermine the moral argument for a free enterprise system, and the publishing in particular.

It would undermine the rationale for quarterly freepathons, too. Icky money being exchanged and all.

[humblegunner]

How about someone USING Free Republic as a free advertising tool?

Would that be OK?

Like spray painting your own phone number on a billboard someone else paid for.

How “free enterprise” is that?

[MMaschin]

This is the way I look at it.

If someone is to accept the belief in God, and that he is the Creator, then our existence must have meaning.

What could this reason for existence be? I doubt it's have as much fun as you can before you die. I think the only true meaning of life, would be to evolve somehow. Evolve how? The most logical is to evolve spiritually.

How do we evolve spiritually? My belief is that in order to evolve spiritually, we simply need to sin less.

What is sin? I believe sin is synonymous with selfishness. Every sin is selfish, and every selfish act is sinful. The more selfish the act, the greater the sin.

When is sex sinful/selfish? When the sex is for ones own personal pleasure. The easiest way for a couple to have unselfish sex, is for sex to be for procreation.

In my opinion, it's the intent of a person towards their partner that makes a sexual act sinful of not. If a persons reason for sex is to feel physical pleasure, it is sinful, if for procreation, or the physical pleasure of your partner, then not. I believe that is the true reason behind the Church's stance against contraceptives, and homosexuality - by explicit intent a person is saying they do not want a child to result from the union. That dramatically increases the likelihood that the union is sinful.

The Church wants people to grow spiritually, and when it comes to sex, intent towards procreation is the easiest way.