Top 5 arguments against gay marriage debunked (1/3)

Jeff Dee debunks the top 5 arguments against gay marriage.

Why is this an atheist issue? Most of the arguments against gay marriage have a religious origin.

Credit:
The Atheist Experience
http://www.atheist-experience.com/
2006-06-04
#451

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Atheist
• Experience
• Proposition
• prop
• gay
• marriage
• same
• sex
• religion
• christianity
• arguments
• Jeff
• Dee
• Matt
• Dillahunty

[TerranRich]

@nonameorgame And what if YOU were part of a minority and gay people were the majority? What if they wanted to ban heterosexual relationships, sex, and marriage? How would you feel then? Please, tell us why you want to limit other people's freedoms. And please tell us you don't live in America.

[Juillardl]

@nonameorgame Why?

[nonameorgame]

I oppose same sex marriage and gay sex. Gay people should not be married, and should not be allowed to have sex.

[Jamieishere1]

@romansten9 All societal improvement could be described as "a giant social experiment that has never been done".... doesn't mean we should stop trying to improve...

Society is based upon many things and marriage has changed throughout the ages. Biblically, it was a man giving his property (a women) to another man for instance.

Nobody is interfering with a "family unit"... you have provided no evidence to suggest that they are.

[Jamieishere1]

@romansten9 The only difference between banning inter-racial and banning ss marriage is the characteristic involved has changed. Was race, now it's gender... To opponents of inter-racial marriage... same race, opposite sex marriage "is what marriage is". Legal Marriage is a human construct and as such, can be whatever we make it.

I know it will be improved because it will no longer be a term that is discriminatorily available for some while prohibited for others, without justification.

[Jamieishere1]

@romansten9 Informed consent.

Your providing a faulty analogy. There is no argument against SS marriage... so no reason not to modify legislation. There is an argument against child-adult marriage, so there is a reason not to modify the law.

It isn't about whimsically changing laws, it's about proponents of your viewpoint justifying why you should be able to restrict other's access to a liberty that you yourself have access to. If you can't the law should change.

[romansten9]

@Jamieishere1 You said that the word marriage will be "improved" by including S.S. couples. How do you know that? You don't. That is a giant social experiment that has never been done. Society is based on thousands of years of marriages made up of male/females and their offspring. Family units are a huge base of what makes a stable society. You have no basis for what you claim is an improvement. So far, groups of gays have shown detriment to society, NOT improvement.

[romansten9]

@Jamieishere1 I've heard S.S couples claim that love is the only requirement for marriage. By that definition, what is to stop a person from marrying a child? (not old enough to decide for themselves?) So what? We'll just change that law also. We'll just say that one person can decide for both parties. Why not? If we mess with one law we can mess with another. You can talk about race all you want to. The inter-racial couples were male/female and that is what marriage is.

[Jamieishere1]

@romansten9 My point is in effect calling for an improvement of a single word, not changing a whole language. As Matt detailed, at one time, "voter" was defined as being a "white male".... we improved that definition because not doing so was unjustified discrimination. Marriage used to be defined as being between people of the same race... we improved that definition. Currently, one group of people are prohibited from marriage while another are not. This requires justification.

[Jamieishere1]

@romansten9 The idea that it is equivalent to erasing all meaning of words is a straw man fallacy, as that isn't what is being argued for. Language naturally evolves and improves or at the very least, changes, over time, which is why I indicated the bible etc (as evidence of that). Even the word "marriage" for instance has been derived from latin, then french, then an older form of English, which were all spelt differently.

tbc