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Is prostitution wrong?
- Thread starter nnmartin
- Start date
What isn't honest about prostitution?
Do you believe the law of the land should be theocracy, then?
Not everyone shares Christian taboos, would you force them upon them if you had your way?
Hi Watchmen,
We've already discussed STD's, forced prostitution, and violence against women of the night.
Maybe you missed the part where those in favor of legalization have all agreed that it would be regulated. That means no STD's, no forced prostitution, no pimps, no violence.
I'm sure those things would still exist, but they would be greatly diminished -- look at it in the context of Prohibition. Making alcohol illegal ramped up the violence because it was profitable to an underground industry. Once alcohol was legal again, all the money was redirected to regulated sources of alcohol and suddenly the criminal industry collapsed.
Scumbags will always exist in any industry, but legalization and regulation will diminish them to negligible levels. Legalizing and regulation would help, not hurt, prostitutes and those that use their services.
Man of Faith
Well-Known Member
As a Christian I can say unequivocally that all sex outside of a marriage between one man and one woman is wrong. And other religious people can say that things are wrong. Atheists on the other hand cant say that anything is wrong, they can only say that it is wrong for them. Because in the atheists world view there is no absolute right or wrong and if an atheist says that there are some things that are wrong in all situations then they should not be an atheist because they just confirmed a higher authority.
Drolefille
PolyPanGeekGirl
In your belief.
Incorrect.
That is a heck of an assumption. Why do you assume that the options are moral authority of a deity or utter and total moral anarchy?
(And this doesn't address that many theists will express some level of moral relativism whether major or minor.)
Your premise is flawed and therefore your conclusion is also flawed.
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
It's a good thing we no longer live in those caveman times. People who still think this way should put a bone through their nose.
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
No one is saying that it's healthy, but if were to were ban things simply on the grounds of health risk, we would have to ban candy, soda, fast food, contact sports and abrahamic faiths.
But seriously, regarding exploitation; the fact that's it's forced underground contributes to that. If it were legalized and regulated, requiring licensing and screening, etc. as a legitimate and transparent business it would greatly reduce the exploitation.
Drolefille
PolyPanGeekGirl
Whose god's way? Why yours and not someone else's?
Why would someone who doesn't believe in your god think that your god's way was better?
When a god provides food, shelter, and substance abuse treatment for people and removes any need for them to turn to prostitution to survive, then that god - or as is typical, the humans speaking for that god - can pass judgment.
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I fall into the 'legalize it to make it safer' contingent. I'm very very leery of abuses, and am aware that even with stringent regulation there will still be street prostitutes because there will always be people who turn to it because they have nothing else, not because they feel like they can thrive in the profession.
I dislike commodifying women, and yet it is done all the time so isn't it better if the women have control of that commodification? But who guarantees that control remains in their hands?
Too many issues, and ones that aren't easily sorted out. At the least I'd like to see it decriminalized for the prostitutes, and if anything enforce punishment against the 'johns.' I'm not opposed to a name and shame here either, but I don't have a good solution.
(That whole being a sex-positive feminist thing makes issues really complicated sometimes
)
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
Woefully incorrect, as always. Superior morality is derived from reason and compassion and requires nothing external or of a supernatural manner.
"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed. The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge." -Albert Einstein
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
Of course I wouldn't want that. I wouldn't want my daughter to belong to your faith, either, but I that doesn't mean I think your faith should be illegal.
outhouse
Atheistically
Drolefille
PolyPanGeekGirl
If I had a daughter, and she wanted to be an escort, even if I had issues with it, as long as I knew she was being as safe as she could be and that she was happy, I'd support her.
Same if she wanted to join the military or pretty much any other job. This goes for a son as well, since you're trying to pull on the heartstrings of the 'protect your daughters' trope.
That's not true; there are entire fields of secular ethics and rational principles behind morality. For instance, check out Kant's categorical imperative.
You might think that without God there is no foundation for morality, but I suspect you may not have looked very intensely into whether or not that's true.
I'd also like to submit that there are deep philosophical problems with basing morality in theistic belief; but that's a subject for another thread. Let me know if you're interested.
Man of Faith
Well-Known Member
I don't need a link. Your're the only atheist that I have heard claim that there is absolute morality in your worldview, if that is what you are saying. However your link doesn't satisfy me because it says that humans were created and says that "moral systems cannot persuade moral action or be regarded as bases for moral judgments against others..." That isn't absolute morality.
There might be a basis for morality in your worldview, which is the common good, but there is no basis for absolute morality where things are wrong in all situations. If you think there is, then you need to debate your own atheist philosophers first before me.
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Sonic247
Well-Known Member
Haha. Whatever I'll sleep at night either way it's not like I'm sleeping around. Or ever was.
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
As disgusting and disturbing as I personally find it, if everyone involved are consenting adults and no innocent person is being victimized or their rights violated in the process I see no justification for it to be illegal (but mandate abortion for any resulting pregnancies, I guess.)