How common is it for atheists to be against homosexuality/abortion?
I posted this question on Reddit a while ago and it was an interesting discussion so I wanted to hear what Lemmings think.
It's common for religious people to be against the above mentioned things due to their beliefs, but how common is it for atheists to be against them? What reasons would they have? How would they base their opinion if there was no belief system/religion to rely on?
I'm not trying to provoke or insult anybody with this question, and I don't wish for people to hate on each other's beliefs. I just think this is an interesting concept to think about.
I can only speak for myself, I am a centrist gen Xer and I don't give a damn about homosexuality or abortion . I personally think they should be background noise and unimportant issues when other issues are being considered. I neither support nor oppose these issues , because I have limited emotional energy and I would rather worry about important issues.
I sort of agree. I think we should a) have gay marriage be legalized and totally equal and b) decide as a society what date is OK. Whether that's 3 months or 5 months I don't really care. Then make it a law and move on
But remember, just because it doesn't matter to me or you (I'm not gay or a woman and I'm guessing neither are you) doesn't mean it isn't important to a lot of folks. Abortion is something that can dramatically improve a young girl's life for the better. Instead of raising a kid at 19 maybe she can go to college and begin a career. Not only is her life improved, we have a productive member of society.
Of course, we lose out on population growth but I'm more of an individualist than collectivist. I think we can always just import immigrants to solve population issues.
So I support whatever the average woman wants do with abortion.
But yeah I agree that we focus too much on these culture war issues and not enough on economic issues. For example economic inequality or distribution of wealth.
I am very similar and I agree with this, specially with the limited emotional energy. It is physically/mentally not possible to handle all the bad shit in the world; I only focus on those around me. For example, I only have one homosexual friend, but I never speak about sexual topics anyway so that never comes up. I will never take part in a gay pride parade, but I will also never stop it or oppose it. This goes on for many topics as well.
So yeah, fairly neutral on such topics, and prefer to stay neutral. Even for topics I don't agree on, I still try not to pick a side. "But you should be pro-X and pro-Y because of Z!", no, take my neutrality as a sign that I am not against your existance.