Issuepedia:Frequently Arising Questions

This is a place where questions of fact can be asked; as the answers become available, they will be recorded and catalogued (either here or on a separate page linked from here).

Issues of Fact

Questions

• Why do U.S. schoolbuses stop at every house now? How large is this trend (just here in Durham, the whole U.S., worldwide, or what?)
• Statistics
  • Where to find global statistics about abortion rates vs. legality of abortion? "the rates of abortions in societies where abortions are legal and in societies where they are illegal are almost identical" according to this
  • Where to find statistics about the crime rate? (specifically in the U.S., but also worldwide)
  • Where to find statistics about drug use? (Derek Jennings, Independent Opinion column, 2005-10-19: "Current figures put white drug use at almost 75% of the total, yet black people still make up almost half the prisoners, despite being only around 12% of the general population."),
  • What are the statistics (fatality/injury rate) on the effect of air bags in automobile accidents? Why was it decided to make it illegal for the owner to disable airbags?

Sources Found

• Free Patents Online: patent database
• Human Security Report 2005: "documents a dramatic, but largely unknown, decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuse over the past decade"
• See also snippets for miscellaneous useful-looking issue-related links
• Bartleby.com: "Great books online", including reference works such as the 2003 World Factbook and the The Columbia Gazetteer of North America, 2000
• Global Land Use Database

Topics for Discussion

• Is this argument valid?: "Arguing ethics [in some contexts] is useless. Ethics are a function of a belief system that determines what is right or what is wrong. Using an extreme example for great clarity: I might subscribe to a belief system that says it is okay to stone you to death for daring to say aloud the name of my deity. Within that belief system, the stoning is 'ethical'. In a modern christian belief system, the stoning is 'unethical'." (Paraphrased from a reader comment here)

Theology/Religious Doctrine

Questions

• Christianity
  • Does Jesus want us to give away all our possessions right now, even knowing that there are selfish people who will take it all and use it to do bad things (or ruin and lose it), leaving us with no way to stop them? Or should we be working together to teach people how not to be selfish, so that one day we really can give away everything without everything becoming lost and wasted?