I hear the same arguments against homosexuality every day, mostly from the religious communities. If you have ever had a logical argument with one of these people, you may notice that they are seemingly impervious to logic. I have told many religious zealots that the new testament was proclaimed null and void by the teachings of Jesus and the writing of the New Testament, and the only response I get is a few blinks and another tired quote about what God wants from them. Another pillar of the hating crowd is what appears to be simple logic. "Men have penises and women have vaginas. Use them for their purpose." Or my personal favorite, "You can't plug a lamp into a lamp." Well fear no more my friends, for on the first day, the blogger proclaims fighting these people to be a waste of time, and they should be pitied, not hated.
The background for this claim is in the philosophy of a stellar french philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir. In 1947 she published The Ethics of Ambiguity, a book that changed my life. The focus of the text is the free will that humans have, and the ways we attempt to subvert it. Beauvoir's work is also chock full of other existential discussions, but there is one idea that is key: personification of her philosophy. Instead of just writing about the ways people avoid making choices, she gives each idea a body full of characteristics. This simple method allows me to take five or six pages and condense it into one blog post. Pretty neat if you ask me.
Beauvoir came up with an idea for a character that she called "The Serious Man". This person holds their cause up to a higher value than their free will. Religion and patriotism seem to be the most prevalent these days, religion being the one that I will cover in this blog. A Serious Man of religion will look to his Bible not as a set of guidelines for his life, but strict rules that MUST be followed. He denies the fact that he is actually able to do whatever he wishes, using the Bible or any other religious text as a scapegoat. Sex before marriage is a very common example of this point.
"I can't have sex before I get married."
"Why not?"
"The Bible says so."
It seems like there isn't any benefit to living life in such a way, right? Well, there is. The benefit to this belief system is it makes life easy. If I wanted to have sex with someone before I was married, I would have to consider how much I love them, if I want to take the risk of pregnancy (assuming I were straight), and many other factors. If I were religious, I could just say "Nope, because God." There is an almost childlike level of stress in life if you let people tell you what to think. This allows him to find purpose in his life by aligning himself with what he feels is an ultimate good. Ergo God says no sex, you don't have sex, and you win eternal life. Life has no stress, no hard decisions, and one simple rule: follow God. Seems like a great trade-off, huh? There is one caveat to this lifestyle, and it is the root reason for why gay people get so much hate. (At least from the religious folk.)
The Serious man does not view things in shades of grey. Everything in the world has it's own category of good and evil, with NOTHING falling in between. This also means that they are mostly incapable of non-literal interpretations of theology, such as believing that Revelations is an account of what will actually happen in the future, rather than a chapter of complex symbolism relating to the plight of people everywhere. This creates a big problem for religious folk when they have to decide what to think about homosexuality. In searching for an opinion in the holy book, they find an obscure passage in the Old Testament, which everyone in the world has heard. (Google Old Testament Gay and you'll see what I mean). However, this isn't the only problem with The Serious Man:
HE IS EASILY TRICKED! The blind devotion of the Serious Man means he will not question a higher authority member of his field. After all, if one wants to avoid stress and thinking about morality, what better way than to eat all the bullshit shoveled by church leaders? If Pat Robertson says pride parades at Disney will cause hurricanes and meteors, why question him? He is a man devoted to the Lord after all. Who am I to question him? Despite the fact that none of the information about Disney came to pass, and the fact that his statements never came true and they have no basis in the New Testament, the support among his fans remains the same.
When a Serious Man meets a homosexual or anyone else that challenges his cause, he becomes instantly furious. When you attack the worldview of a Serious Man, you are fighting the Serious Man himself, as well as his entire purpose of being. He views our sexual orientation not as something decided by birth or lifestyle, but an affront to the meaning of his life.
Here is where I repeat myself: These people are not worth the time you will spend arguing. They will not change. Ever. They live their lives as slaves to a "greater cause". They treat our failings as a fault of our actions, and our success as the work of a puppeteer. Only when the Serious Man recognizes his free will and independence from his cause will he be able to change for the better.
So why do they deserve your pity? Simply put, it is impossible for the Serious Man to become anything more than a pawn to his cause. When I see a comment from someone on the Internet that shows closed mindedness, I don't get angry. I'm saddened by the fact that a person with the potential to change the world denies himself that right, and instead devotes himself to mindless adulation.
Take solace in the fact that as long as you live your life without absolutes, you will be morally superior to the Serious Man.
Which is nice.
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