@Anonymous Being submissive or being dominant are neither good nor bad. It is simply how God has created certain people. What matters is the relationship. A good Dominant will not take advantage of a Sub, and will be conscious of his/her needs. Subs and Doms simply have different needs, and in a healthy D/S relationship, the needs of both are met in a loving way.

@DavidStratton I do not think that people should be characterized as simply "dominant" and "submissive". Those are relative terms to each other, and are meaningless in absolute terms. In addition, I do not think it is possible that a person can be completely dominant without being submissive at all, in any circumstance, or vice versa.

On the other hand, people can make dramatic or literary caricatures of concepts and play the caricatures out in stories. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice makes the concepts "pride" and "prejudice" come to life by allowing the principal characters embody them.

Additionally, the terms "dominant" and "submissive" in that context are just subjective identity terms, based on how the individual identifies himself or herself. I'm sure we can find some couples who are in a dominant-submissive relationship, based on our own definitions, even though they do not see themselves as such.

@Anonymous I'm speaking of people who self-identify as such. They know what the words mean when they do so.

as opposed to applying labels to others.

@DavidStratton I wouldn't say that stereotyping people is intrinsically a bad thing. As long as it is done privately and not harmful, I think stereotypes and generalizations and social labels are a way for the human brain to make sense of the disorganized, big world.

Does anybody wonder if God can read people's thoughts and check to see if they are making sinful thoughts?

If a person makes sinful thoughts without actually making sinful behaviors, then would that still count as sinning? Does God monitor ideas, thoughts, and emotions?

@Anonymous yeah, if someone believes that God is omniscient then they believe He can do that.

@Anonymous But that's a matter of degrees, a sinful inclination is only sinful if it is acted upon. But if you're delighting in your sinful desires within your imagination then I think thinking the thought is a sinful act

@PeterTurner Do you know a textual verse that supports the belief that God is omniscient?

@PeterTurner What happens if you have conflicted emotions? On one side, you delight at the thought of torturing someone in your mind. And then, you feel sick that you are even thinking of disturbing thoughts in the first place?

@PeterTurner Maybe one literary example would be Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.

@Anonymous Poe's works are probably not a good example of anything Christian.

Sometimes you just wonder how some people got where they are because they seem to just be so asinine.

@fredsbend Well, as I said, no one really agrees on what counts as "kinky" anyway.

@anon biblehub.com/john/2-24.htm comes to mind when thinking of Gods omniscience.

@PeterTurner I think that's debatable. In some translations, I think it's trying to get the point that Jesus understood human nature - in the same manner as many philosophers - and explained them through parables. Secondly, the quote is referring to Jesus. To equate Jesus to God requires the assumption that Jesus is God and acknowledgement that New Testament is correct and true.

I wonder how TRiG's former self as a Jehovah's Witness would respond to this.

@Anonymous If you're asking for a text to affirm God's omniscience, aren't you beginning with the assumption that the text provides reliable testimony? If we don't acknowledge the New Testament to be true (or at least true-ish) there's no reason to care what it says of God.

@Anonymous 1 Samuel 2:3, Job 28:23-28, 1 John 3:20, and others.

@Anonymous I'm 38. I had my son when I was 17 / 18. Older? Yes. Old? Not quite yet :)

I joke around about having (potentially) 3 families. My first was with my girlfriend and mother of my oldest. My second is with my wife (not same woman) and he's 6. When he's 18, I could do it one more time - should my wife divorce me.

or we convert to Mormonism.

@DanAndrews Mormons aren't the only ones to embrace a multiplicity of matrimony.

btw you should all support: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/210996/…

@RyanFrame From an academic standpoint, it doesn't matter if the Bible is "true" or not. Beliefs are typically stemmed from what people think the Bible says, and I'm sure that there are quotes supporting all the doctrines, used by anybody.

@DanAndrews 17 or 18 is still quite young to bear children.

@DanAndrews There is also serial monogamy.