{"id":14297,"date":"2011-10-17T01:41:20","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T08:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=14297"},"modified":"2011-10-17T02:03:35","modified_gmt":"2011-10-17T09:03:35","slug":"in-defense-of-differing-with-the-entire-human-race-of-earlier-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=14297","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Differing With The Entire Human Race of Earlier Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Crossposted at Family Scholars Blog<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

In an anti-abortion\/anti-marriage equality essay, Stephen Heaney<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n

With a different understanding of marriage, one might argue that same-sex couples are harmed by the lack of marital status because they believe it is owed to them.<\/p>\n

The simple fact that no one in the entire history of humanity has ever thought it even possible for two people of the same sex to marry should give us pause. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stephen is, of course, exaggerating; obviously, some people in “the entire history of humanity” have thought same-sex marriage possible, or we would not be discussing it now.<\/p>\n

The same day I read Stephen’s essay, I also read this, by “Tardiff Mark”, in the comments at Unequally Yoked<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rather, what needs explanation is why a sizable minority in Europe and North America have, in the late twentieth century, come to think that marriage could be anything else than what it has always and everywhere been. Those pushing for a change tend to explain the situation by saying that their opponents are ignorant bigots. Those pushing for a change, however, differ with the entire human race of earlier ages and just about the entire human race today. The only logical deduction is that those pushing for a change consider themselves to possess a wisdom and insight into marriage greater than just about the entire human race. Is that reasonable?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mark also exaggerates when he says “what it has always and everywhere been.” Obviously, places like present-day Canada and New York are part of the set “always and everywhere.” (There are other historic examples<\/a>.) <\/p>\n

Mark and Stephen share not only a tendency towards exaggeration, but also the idea that it’s suspicious and probably wrong to have a belief that differs from what most of humanity has believed. The implication — a flat-out claim in Mark’s case — is that those who favor same-sex marriage are arrogant and conceited to think that we might be right when so many have disagreed with us. ((Mark and Stephen are far from alone in this assessment; I’ve seen many opponents of same-sex marriage make similar claims.))<\/p>\n

But there are all sorts of things that virtually everyone in our society — including most opponents of same-sex marriage — believe that much or most of humanity, historically, would disagree with. Slavery, for example, was an accepted part of most human societies for thousands of years. The very idea of democracy with universal suffrage — allowing even poor people and women to vote — would have been not just foreign but immoral in the view of most humans in history. <\/p>\n

Even if we limit ourselves to marriage, most human cultures have allowed children to marry adults, a practice we find disgusting. War brides — essentially a form of rape — have also been common. Marital rape, repulsive to us, would have been acceptable in most of human society for most of history.<\/p>\n

Now let’s talk about homosexuality. Most opponents of same-sex marriage that I’ve spoken to tell me they have absolutely nothing against lesbians, gay men and bisexuals. On the contrary; like Rick Santorum<\/a>, they allude to respected and loved LGB friends, and are at pains to say they do not think of homosexuals as disgusting immoral perverts. If we take same-sex marriage opponents at their words, then, they too are disagreeing with what much (perhaps most) of humanity has believed throughout history.<\/p>\n

It’s fairly obvious that much, perhaps most, of humanity has believed some monstrous things throughout history. I don’t believe that modern people are individually any smarter than people born 100 or 1000 years ago. But collectively we may be wiser, because knowledge of morality, like knowledge of science and technology, may accumulate over time.<\/p>\n

Think of some of the great discoveries — germs, for instance. That the Earth orbits the sun. Evolution. We also have great inventions, such as architecture, antibiotics, the printing press, the rudder, and democracy. These are bits of technology and knowledge that don’t need to be reinvented every generation; technological wisdom, when things work well, accumulate over time.<\/p>\n

Do I have access to printed books and antibiotics because I am personally smarter than humans who lived 1000 years ago? Of course not. I have access to these things because I was lucky to be born in a time, a society, and an economic class that inherited access to these and other accumulated wonders from previous generations.<\/p>\n

Similarly, moral wisdom, when things work well, accumulates over time. The realization that homosexuality is not morally disgusting — is in fact, not in any way morally inferior to heterosexuality — is one of the great discoveries of humanity, and one that reduces suffering and increases contentment just as surely as the discovery of a useful new medicine.<\/p>\n

Just as the realization that rape is morally intolerable changed our understanding of marriage, the realization that homosexuality is moral is changing our understanding of marriage. That’s the way it should be. Change is not always bad, and clinging thoughtlessly to the often cruel bulk of human history is not a tenable moral position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Crossposted at Family Scholars Blog.] In an anti-abortion\/anti-marriage equality essay, Stephen Heaney writes: With a different understanding of marriage, one might argue that same-sex couples are harmed by the lack of marital status because they believe it is owed to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,49,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crossposted-on-tada","category-lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-queer-issues","category-same-sex-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14297"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14299,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14297\/revisions\/14299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}