Originally Posted by
Babydoll 
Oh my ****ing god. This government does my bloody head in (UK). On the news they have now taken the banning of advertising tobacco and cigarettes to another level by removing them from view in shops. It is unbelievable how much this government is interferring in our lives.
And how exactly does this change anything? Those who already intend to smoke know perfectly well that they can still purchase them at their everyday shop, right? And those who try to quit smoking, do it on rare occassions or have never done it wont feel any urge to try it out by seeing the package.
State control? I'd like to see a better example of that. This is hardly worth mentioning.
For a start smoking is not a direct cause of death. It is correlational.. but not a direct cause. My great grandfather lived until he was 88, having smoked all his life and did not die of smoking related illnesses.
I believe a previous poster already clarified about this and cancer. And I'd far sooner believe the correlation between cancer statistics and habitual smoking over your one-person example.
Also, as cynical as it may sound, this world is over populated as it is. Realistically, if people are indirectly willing to damage their health then let them do it! It's banned in public places in the UK as it is, so passive smoking is not really an issue any more.
Population distribution. I do hope you know where most of the people in the world live at before you use it as an example for first world country peeps to go wacko and kill themselves.
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One thing I'm curious about though. Just randomly, since christian beliefs are against masturbation since it kills seeds (aka potential life), doesn't it essentially mean that sex also should be against that belief since only one of the sperm make it to the egg while the others die?