Philosophy
I was wrong, they were right. In my post Countering the Slippery Slope Nonsense: Why Gay Marriage Doesn't Lead to Box Turtle Nuptials, I made light of the frightening possibility that opening the gates to gay marriage might lead down the slippery slope to human/non-human marriage. This line of reasoning has been embraced by James Dobson (whose mind goes to donkeys), Rick Santorum (who prefers dogs), and John Cornyn (for whom box turtles are the great Satan of matrimony). I argued:
- Debunking The "naturalistic" Argument Against Gay Marriage, Part I
As John points out over at The NonSequitur"Arguments against gay marriage tend to fall into one of two groups: (1) the slippery slope group, which alleges that if gay marriage is permitted, all sorts of outrageous consequences will follow (such as the...
- Death Over Marriage
Eddie Izzard has a bit where he argues that there could never be an effective Inquisition from the Anglican Church because "cake or death?" would not be a difficult question. But apparently marriage or death is a tricky one for the Catholic Church, or...
- Polygamy Revisited
In discussing yesterday's comments, TheWife suggested a post extending and clarifying the polygamy portion of the argument. Fortunately, Lindsay over at Majikthise has done it for me and, no doubt, better. We need to remember what the original claim...
- Marriage For (and Against) Dummies
I'm working on the section of (what will hopefully be) my new book, Was It Morally Good For You, Too?: A Guide to Rational Ethics in Sex, Politics, and Other Dirty Words to be called "The Ins and Outs of Sexual Ethics." Comments and criticisms gratefully...
- Pied Piper Of Astronomy
The other evening I was thinking about people who have attempted to popularize various venues of science and it came to me that a rather unique individual that was featured some time ago on one of those Sunday morning magazine type programs: John Dobson....
Philosophy
My Apology to Santorum, Dobson, and Cornyn
I was wrong, they were right. In my post Countering the Slippery Slope Nonsense: Why Gay Marriage Doesn't Lead to Box Turtle Nuptials, I made light of the frightening possibility that opening the gates to gay marriage might lead down the slippery slope to human/non-human marriage. This line of reasoning has been embraced by James Dobson (whose mind goes to donkeys), Rick Santorum (who prefers dogs), and John Cornyn (for whom box turtles are the great Satan of matrimony). I argued:
Animals may or may not have moral rights, but under our social contract they do not have legal rights. Since animals cannot be held legally responsible and cannot participate in making decisions, they cannot be married. If children do not rise to the standard, then clearly neither do box turtles. As for Dobson's donkeys, I have known many people who married jackasses, but that is a different question. One might object that Lassie was quite capable of making life or death decisions for little Timmy, so "shouldn't they be allowed to get married?" I don't think it is a real concern because while Lassie seemed gentle and caring on screen, everyone knows that off-camera she was just a little bitch.But now, out of India comes this bit of news. Apparently, a woman living outside of Bhubaneswara has married a cobra. When asked for comment, the father of the bride was quoted as saying,
"He may not look like much, but he will be a great provider for my daughter. The snake expects to make partner next year in the law firm of Gupta, Shyster, and Gupta, LLC."While this is a religious, not a civil, union, the fact is that the possibility is apparently more open than I allowed in my treatment of the question. Reverend Dobson, Senator Cornyn, and soon to be ex-Senator Santorum, please accept my sincere apology.
- Debunking The "naturalistic" Argument Against Gay Marriage, Part I
As John points out over at The NonSequitur"Arguments against gay marriage tend to fall into one of two groups: (1) the slippery slope group, which alleges that if gay marriage is permitted, all sorts of outrageous consequences will follow (such as the...
- Death Over Marriage
Eddie Izzard has a bit where he argues that there could never be an effective Inquisition from the Anglican Church because "cake or death?" would not be a difficult question. But apparently marriage or death is a tricky one for the Catholic Church, or...
- Polygamy Revisited
In discussing yesterday's comments, TheWife suggested a post extending and clarifying the polygamy portion of the argument. Fortunately, Lindsay over at Majikthise has done it for me and, no doubt, better. We need to remember what the original claim...
- Marriage For (and Against) Dummies
I'm working on the section of (what will hopefully be) my new book, Was It Morally Good For You, Too?: A Guide to Rational Ethics in Sex, Politics, and Other Dirty Words to be called "The Ins and Outs of Sexual Ethics." Comments and criticisms gratefully...
- Pied Piper Of Astronomy
The other evening I was thinking about people who have attempted to popularize various venues of science and it came to me that a rather unique individual that was featured some time ago on one of those Sunday morning magazine type programs: John Dobson....