1. My internet persona is a little less tactful with crude humor, but only because the internet is a hive of crude humor while in the real world people are more likely to be offended. Otherwise, they are the same... I find the concept of maintaining multiple personas to be tiresome.
2. I reject the premise, but not because I'm a fan of religion. Religion attempts to create order by offering a moral code. Often, that moral code is imperfect, to say the least*, but it still tries to create order through our better angels, rather than our demons. It is not religion, but the religious, that try to impose (not create) that order by intimidation and fear. But much like how the shooting in Arizona the other week was the fault of a mad man with a gun and not any politician or pundit even if he had gotten the idea from a warped understanding of their words, these religious whackjobs are responsible for their actions, not the religion they pervert.
*Here is a good summation of my view of religion itself though, from an interview of Sam Harris about his book The Moral Landscape...
Quote:
Q: What do you think the role of religion is in determining human morality?
Harris: I think it is generally an unhelpful one. Religious ideas about good and evil tend to focus on how to achieve well-being in the next life, and this makes them terrible guides to securing it in this one. Of course, there are a few gems to be found in every religious tradition, but in so far as these precepts are wise and useful they are not, in principle, religious. You do not need to believe that the Bible was dictated by the Creator of the Universe, or that Jesus Christ was his son, to see the wisdom and utility of following the Golden Rule.
The problem with religious morality is that it often causes people to care about the wrong things, leading them to make choices that needlessly perpetuate human suffering. Consider the Catholic Church: This is an institution that excommunicates women who want to become priests, but it does not excommunicate male priests who rape children. The Church is more concerned about stopping contraception than stopping genocide. It is more worried about gay marriage than about nuclear proliferation. When we realize that morality relates to questions of human and animal well-being, we can see that the Catholic Church is as confused about morality as it is about cosmology. It is not offering an alternative moral framework; it is offering a false one.
3. In the certainty of guilt for a crime worthy of capital punishment, I think it is more humane for the rest of society to kill him. For him, I would say it would be more humane to give him the choice, if you were inclined to give the choice. In real terms though, the reason to not execute is because the guilt is uncertain. Just look at all the people being exonerated after their execution in Texas.
4. Yes, but not much. We share the same basic DNA, so genetic differences are minute and generally inconsequential. African's having more melanin in their skin is a genetic difference, but it doesn't matter outside of exposure to the sun. Most differences that are consequential are cultural rather than genetic (Chinese kids being coddled less and pushed harder, and ending up more educated and more successful, for example).
5. Monogamy is biologically unnatural for men, more natural for women. But it is the way our society was structured, so to completely do away with it would make the world seem a lot less "natural" for everyone.
6. It's a ham-fisted attempt to shape cultural norms. It's not the crime they're focusing on, it's the mentality that caused it. To shun that mentality, it is hoped, will cause that mentality to become less prevalent and eventually fade away. Basically, it's saying "not only did you commit a crime, but you did so for reasons that we have decided are especially unacceptable, and we will make an example of you to show that your way of thinking is unacceptable." From a legal standpoint, not exactly the most fair way to handle things.
7. Some girls seem to think so. My russian friends (all girls) are of the opinion that girls should not be heard cussing, and if they do you should pretend they didn't. Also, when trying to say something about a penis, the only way one of them could say it (while still blushing even at this) was "the thing guys have that girls don't". It was funny how absurd it was, it was like talking to a child. But then again, they come from a highly patriarchal society that views gender roles as much more important than we do. For me, however, no word is more or less distasteful depending on who says it.
8. I have no opinion on this.
Akina: bitch I will stab you in the face
