Definitions, Definitions, Definitions

I don't think that homosexuality is a sin, I just think it's wrong. Why do I think it's wrong? Because I am repelled by the very idea of it. If other people like it, I suppose it's none of my business, but that doesn't mean I have to vote for it. I would be willing to live and let live on this issue if they hadn't brought gay marriage into the equation, I think that was just a step too far. Marriage is a contract between two people, with the government putting their stamp of approval on it. I do not approve of gay marriage, so I voted against my government putting their stamp of approval on it. Would it have been more logical for me to have voted contrary to my own beliefs?

 In keeping with your definition of sin, it's not a sin unless you think it's wrong and do it anyway. I think homosexuality is wrong, but I don't practice it myself, therefore it's not a sin for me. I don't know if the people that do practice it think it's wrong, probably some of them do and some of them don't. If they don't think it's wrong, then it isn't a sin for them to do it. It appears, then, that it's a sin for some people and not for others. Going back to the religious context of sin, if your religion says it's a sin, then I suppose it's a sin for you to do it. If I am not a follower of your religion, then what your religion says about it is irrelevant to me. Since neither of us are religious, our concept of right and wrong must come from somewhere else.

Since newborn infants don't seem to understand right and wrong, the concept must be acquired rather than inborn. Well they might be born with a genetic predisposition for it, but it still takes some kind of outside influence to bring it to the surface, and that influence seems to come from other people. This raises the question of how do those other people acquire their concept of right and wrong. From different other people of course but, if you follow the chain back far enough, you should come to one person who started it all. Where did that person get it from? Without bringing religion into it, can we solve this one? Well, maybe it wasn't just one person who started it all, maybe it was a committee or something like that. Could a committee come up with something that none of it's members would have ever come up with by themselves? My experience with committees suggests that one member usually kicks out an idea and then the others toss it around and see where it lands. A single person, therefore, might have come up with the idea that, if we have a list of rules for our people to follow, it might make it easier to resolve disputes without resorting to violence. Then the committee would generate nominations for the list and discuss each one until they decide to either add it to the list or forget about it. When the list is complete, the committee would then have to find a way to get the rest of the tribe to accept it. They might vote on it, or they might just impose it by power of their authority. Either way, the list would become binding on all tribal members. You don't like it, leave the tribe and go start a tribe of your own, if you can persuade anybody else to join you. (I don't know where I'm going with this, I'm just speculating.)

Okay, back to real time: You have accused me of being without sin, as if that was a bad thing. I, on the other hand, can't understand why you would deliberately do something that you believed to be wrong. Not just you, anybody. Why would anybody deliberately do something they believed to be wrong? Don't forget, I didn't say that I've never done anything wrong, just that I believed it to be right before I did it. Of course it doesn't always turn out to be right and, when it doesn't, I add it to the list of things that I regret doing and vow to never do again. If I do indeed repeat the mistake, it's usually because I forgot what happened last time. A certain amount of memory loss is normal at my age, you know. Another way I might repeat a mistake is if it's not exactly the same situation and I don't realize that the same rule should apply. There are probably other ways a guy can screw up like that, but screwing up is not the same thing as saying, "I know this is wrong, and I'm going to regret it later but, fuck it, I'm going to do it anyway." How does that work?