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[Mark]

The hell is a moderate atheist? As opposed to someone who subscribes to the fundamentals of atheism?

My level of certainty of there being no God is around 9/10. So when forced to pick between atheism and agnosticism I'm inclined to pick the former with the "moderate" disclaimer. You are of course free to choose a different label that best describes my position but none of it matters to me and I don't like to give it much thought.

[Mark]

Okie dokie

[scotnadian]

Almost choked on my scrambled eggs when I fired up my computer and this was on my News Page. 

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/brazilian-woman-auctions-off-virginity-780-000-193133109.html

[Aileen]

Almost choked on my scrambled eggs when I fired up my computer and this was on my News Page. 

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/brazilian-woman-auctions-off-virginity-780-000-193133109.html

While it does seem distasteful to me because it's something I could never have done, I don't really see the problem.  Migliorini is apparently doing this voluntarily and not being coerced into it, and if the money raised is indeed for the purpose that she claims it's for, then that's fine by me.  It's her body after all and she can do what she likes with it.

[Aileen]

Some girl did this in the UK a few years ago to fund her degree.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4222155/Student-auctions-off-virginity-for-offers-of-more-than-2.5-million.html

I remember reading about that at the time and there were quite a few expressions of disgust, although it's interesting, but not surprising, that she also considered it to be relevant to the subject of her degree.

A few years ago I lived in what was then Edinburgh's "red light" district (it has since been moved due complaints by local residents).  As part of their beat was a street opposite where I lived I got on speaking terms with a couple of them and discovered that quite a number of young women become prostitutes simply so that they can feed and clothe their families, usually because they're single parents.  That was over a decade ago and given today's economic climate it wouldn't surprise if that number has increased.  No matter what the state of the economy is there will always be men prepared to pay for sex.

It seems very few are in it because they actually want to be, particularly as these women live in constant fear of suffering serious physical harm or even being murdered, no matter how carefully they try to check the men out before getting into their cars or the fact that, in Edinburgh at least, the police are tolerant enough to keep a watchful but very discreet eye on them.

[Aileen]

You know, everyone says they will do it for a good cause but I seriously doubt it.
Even in a Miss World or Miss Universe,if they are questioned they act as if they are gonna help the orphanage and charity and rural areas blah blah blah...
There are better ways if you wanna help people.
You don't have to do such things really..

I do agree with you Zarfeen, but if she's got any conscience at all she's going to feel pretty bad if she doesn't do what she says with the money because she's attracted so much publicity.

Also I think she's taking a huge risk, since goodness knows what the Japanese 'gentleman' might subject her to.

[TheMadHatter]

When I hear any mention of the Proclaimers I can't help but think of Family Guy.