I have to agree with the person that mentioned abortion vs. murder. While I don’t support abortion in anyway I do recognize that the church will forgive a person that has committed this sin. The church has a very different outlook on those that have committed murder.

Again this is only an opinion but I find great comfort that my baby is in heaven right now being taught by kindred spirits that has gone on before him. My father died October 27th and it just about killed me to think that my father would never meet my firstborn. But then as I prayed and asked for comfort I was comforted with the thought that my dad already knew my son and that he was preparing him for his mission here on earth. Is it true, I don’t know and none of us will until that great day when the veil is lifted. But I sure do feel better at the thought of it.

What does it mean to love our neighbor? Does it mean that we should donate all of our income beyond what we need to survive to charities? Does it mean that we should be absolute pascifists? How do I know “love” when I see it?

Platitudes tell us NOTHING about the substance of ethics. As I already stated, I agree with these platitudes entirely (and more!), but your logic does not.

Failing to recognize the moral worth of God’s children is immoral. We’re commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, and yes, *God* defines who our neighbors are.

The basis for an ethics about “life” cannot be appealed to by science, nor by the scriptures, because such a basis does not exist (apart from the culture in which it is produced). Just because some cultures count the first 100 days (or longer) as a part of the gestation period does not seem to me to be inherently wicked. To go to them and insist that God is angry at them because they hold a different funeral for babies who die before 100 days than for babies who die after 100 days strikes me as a really bad example of an ethical argument. Should we also go inform them that adulthood begins at 21, and not 13? And while we’re at it, let’s make sure that they have a senior discount for anyone over the age of 62.

All cultures have their own practical logic on which ethics are built. Let’s not confuse our own cultural, historical moment with eternal truth, especially since God has not revealed anything on the subject.

If you believe that the glory of God is intelligence, as we do, then I suspect you also believe, as we do, that God loves all his children, young and old, black and white, bond and free, regardless of how their cultures view them.

-queuno. Um, yes. Oh yeah, I also beleive that the glory of God is intellegence, that we should seek out knowledge from the best books, that we should have faith seeking understanding, that we should follow our prophet when he says “get all the education you can,” and a number of other apparently not self-evident truths…