I am not surprised. Especially the young people statistic. In my experience, it's people's parents who have the biggest problem with gay marriage, their kids don't really care.

Which is obnoxious to those of us who are quite happy not being Christian and are sick of putting up with people wasting our time trying to convert us... let alone lecturing us about things that we don't consider bad because we're not Christian and thus don't care what Christianity does and doesn't approve of.

Even back when I was trying to be a good Catholic I still thought witnessing was rude/obnoxious/disrespectful. Why is it so hard to just MYOB?

edited 25th May '11 1:04:15 PM by Jeysie

Of course, it seems that some Christians aren't getting the conversion message, given that some seem determined to alienate non-Christians.

Because everything is your business if you think you're morally superior to everyone else.

Fun Fact: The Westboro Baptist Church does those protest things outside of funerals to turn people against God so that they will go to hell.

edited 25th May '11 1:06:56 PM by inane242

I'm not sure why they do. As far as I know, they believe that their church and their church alone is assured entry to heaven (and if I recall a particular documentary correctly, they teach children to be upset at the prospect of anyone else getting into heaven after they die).

Do you have a source for that? I'm intrigued

EDIT: Rerailing

edited 25th May '11 1:32:21 PM by EdwardsGrizzly

Last I checked from studying the Bible, Christians aren't supposed to force it on others. It's more of supposed to go along the lines of "Do good deeds and set an example and people will eventually follow because they see the example of goodness before them". It's quite inspiring, to be honest, until you start to see the so called Christians in the media.

Buddhism's one the huge ass missionary religions. We seem to have sort of fallen by the wayside with that these days. There are still temples of every school being spread over the world, but it's not like before where whole schools were like "MUST CONVERT THE WORLD!!! YES!!! BUDDHIST EMPIRE!!!".

I personally am not much of a missionary. I live the best life I can and share info with others when the situation arises. If people want help finding temples and the like I will aid them. I won't force it on them and I do try to avoid being a passive aggressive YOU MUST JOIN ME NOW person. Key word here is try. I am certain that I am not always successful in this goal.

I damn sure ain't going to pass out fliers and badger people though. If people have already said "Nope" then it is "Nope" and that is that.

edited 25th May '11 1:23:30 PM by Aondeug

EDIT: Yes, this is getting derailed.

edited 25th May '11 1:32:00 PM by EdwardsGrizzly

Wrong topic, Aondeug... and just about everyone else at this point. We aren't talking about proselytization.

I recall a certain warlord taking over all of present day India and then forcefully instating Buddhism to shut everyone up. Weaponized religion of peace in my history? More likely than you think.

EDIT: Darn it, got caught up in the derail.

edited 25th May '11 1:26:33 PM by Usht

Thread Hop. That's great news!

I tend to take a rather dim view of these statistics. While I haven't seen the survey question, the result still suggests that 47% of Americans are opposed to gay marriage, and from a pragmatic, political standpoint that figure can't be taken lightly.

Yes, but other results seem to suggest that the divide seems to rest on age... that young people tend to be more and more in favor, with the holdouts tending to be the old people.

So... all we have to do is wait for the naysayers to die off. </cynical>

Yeah, I agree sadly you often have to wait for the bigots to just grow old and die before society totally changes. There are people who cling onto their old views forever, but even many of the old are changing their views; just not a majority.

On the flip side of the coin, older people are much more likely to vote than younger people.

Which is to say, they aren't trying to ineffectually stick to the man by ignoring his system. They make the man do what they want him to do, which is why I still have a lot more respect for the people who go out and vote than the people who sit around and discuss politics all day and then claim they can't do anything about it.

edited 25th May '11 3:16:23 PM by Usht

The reasons why the older demographics vote more than the younger ones are a good deal more complex than that, Usht. For example, older people often have more free time, and have had a nice long lifetime in which to realize just how much voting matters.

Free time or not, you make time for getting your opinion heard. And the second part was just what I was getting at, they realize voting is important and thus why they'll be of greater importance to what happens than the next generation until that next generation is no longer the new generation.

Well, younger people are more likely to believe they're being edgy non-conformists if they don't vote. They usually change their tune when the party they like doesn't win the ballot.

I'm 21 and I vote in both federal and provincial elections (Canadian). It just seems stupid not to vote. I'm not a big fan of any politician, but some are certainly better than others, and if I vote for the least onerous one then things will improve.

In Connecticut, any two adult individuals who have been living together for some years get the same benefits as a married couple.

I say we drop government involvement in marriage altogether and do what connecticut does.

^ But what if you don't want your long-term roommate to be treated as if they were married to you?

This is significant. The church is no longer the hall of record in regards to the census, marriages, etc. so this is very important for your local hall of records. "Marriage" may be a cultural thing, but so is record keeping.