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Wed 24 Oct, 2012 01:46 am
One of the most seductive arguments used is that everything is made by God therefore any natural is virtuous. This is used to support gay marriage, for instance. If a person is born with a particular nature, it is virtuous for him. This is of course totally absurd. A manic depressive is a product of nature but hardly a desirable attribute - not to equate that with gay marriage.
In fact probably the best refutation of a beneficent God with any input into this world, is to ask whether 'he' ever warns of earthquakes and hurricanes, has ever advised that vitamins can be gained from sunlight and fruit to ward off scurvy and rickets - for instance. Or in the past million years has done anything other than be the 'cause' or reason for existence. The main reason why belief persists is probably nothing to do with God as such, but with a natural wish that those we love who die may be seen by us again, and that an often painful life on earth may be rewarded by something better.
Nature and Natural are not ethical values. Pragmatism is a value, in so far as anything considered morally desirable must be achievable in fullness of time. Nature simply states that we are made in a certain way, and evolution may have found a sort of altruism necessary to our survival, but it is Altruism that is the value. The question then is whether the value Altruism, can be taken beyond the simple needs of nature and survival, and become a greater end in itself.
Similarly, authority is often seen by one set of people as being vested in another set of people. In reality this is a recipe for anarchism. The real authority is in the ethical values that are promoted, either for good or ill. Or in Protestant terms in the words of the holy book - in our terms in the values that are expressed by those words, for good or ill.
For the original question. The anarchistic desires of gay and other unusual people, is what it says, anarchism. Altruism, is concerned with the whole of society as well as the passing good of individuals, and is tolerant.
@RW Standing,
Quote:Can We Marry our Dogs
Something in the way you hump my leg gives me cause to post the bans.
@RW Standing,
Your post is loaded with poor analogies. Sexual attraction and romantic love are not psychiatric illnesses such as manic-depressive disorders.
Also, gender and species are totally different classifications. Two human beings of the same gender belong to the same species. No one is promoting marriage outside of our own species.
@RW Standing,
First of all. I am very much against the idea that what God wants should have anything to do with the laws that govern society. Letting what some obsolete holy book says about the God dictate how we act is nuts.
You seem to be advocating theocracy. In a democracy why should we give a crap what someone says God thinks?
@RW Standing,
Also RW Standing.
I don't think you know what the word "anarchistic" means.