— 1 — Bit of housekeeping before you get to the rest of the takes. If you’re coming here through the blog carnival, perhaps you’d like to get caught up with the ongoing debate on gay marriage. A college friend of mine challenged me to answer the strongest arguments against gay marriage, and we’re working through them. (And if you like that stuff, consider voting for this blog in the About Atheism awards?) — 2 — Ok, now that... Read more
This post is part of a debate on gay marriage. Matt led off with a post on gay marriage and deep friendship, and I rebutted him in three parts. Now he debuts a new argument, which I’ll respond to tomorrow. (Oh, and once again, photos are my fault, not Matt’s). The second of Professor Anthony Esolen’s arguments that I’d like to concur with is the idea that homosexual marriage would “seal us in a culture of divorce.” Again, this hits at... Read more
This post is part of a debate on gay marriage. I’m responding to Matt’s post on gay marriage and deep friendship, and this is the last part of my three-part rebuttal. Matt and Esolen’s idea that sexual tension poisons relationships has pretty high stakes for me. As a bi girl, I am technically never not around people to whom I could conceivably be sexually attracted. And as an out bi girl, I’m around people who know that I know that they know... Read more
This post is part of a debate on gay marriage. I’m responding to Matt’s post on gay marriage and deep friendship, and this is the second part of my three-part rebuttal. Matt is worried that acknowledgement of same-sex attraction will warp intense same-sex friendships, even in a world where homosexuality isn’t stigmatized. He’s probably right that it will change guy-guy dynamics, so I’d like to talk a bit about why men have been able to isolate themselves from this danger in the... Read more
This post is part of a debate on gay marriage. I’m responding to Matt’s post on gay marriage and deep friendship, and this is the first part of my three-part rebuttal. Thanks again to Matt for taking on this debate. The second part of his argument will run tomorrow. Thanks also to the mostly respectful and mostly constructive commentariat. One reason I like arguing with conservatives is because even if I don’t end up agreeing with them, they tend to... Read more
This is a guest post for a debate on the consequences of gay marriage. The opinions expressed below are fairly obviously not my own. Oh, but I did do the pictures. This week at Yale an undergraduate organization known as Undergraduates for a Better Yale College is hosting Professor Anthony Esolen of Providence College. Picking up on one series of blog posts he wrote critical of gay marriage, the Yale community has begun to express outrage. A campus publication calls... Read more
There’s a controversy brewing at my alma mater. As the kickoff to True Love Week (meant to contrast with the concurrently running Sex Week at Yale), organizers invited Professor Anthony Esolen of Providence College to speak on “The Person as a Gift.” A few days before the keynote, IvyGate publicized Esolen’s fervent writings about the destructive power of gay marriage. Activists on campus organized a kiss-in and then marched out of Esolen’s talk. I disapprove of demonstrations that interrupt speakers, if any other... Read more
In Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition he goes through the argument that some Unmoved Mover (called God) must exist, to be the cause of all perfections, must embody all perfections. In brief, in order to be the cause of some quality, the causal agent must either possess it explicitly (red paint is red and can make other things red) or have the property of being able to cause it (morphine isn’t sleepy, but it’s nature is to induce sleepiness). In... Read more
While discussing Feser and First Mover problems with a college friend, he tried to pitch me on Deism (but mostly as a waystation to paganism). I asked what he had read that he found compelling, and he recommended Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. “Sorry,” I said, “I read Epictetus’s The Handbook back in Directed Studies, and I can’t touch the stuff. It’s bad for me.” My professor in first term philosophy was great because, after we discussed the substance of our... Read more
Komen spent the last two days reaping a financial windfall from pro-life activists, after they pulled their funding for Planned Parenthood. (Planned Parenthood had a funding surge, too, prompting a friend of mine to say the whole thing felt like a publicity stunt, or a pro-wrestling storyline). Now, Komen has purged its new policy. But before any pro-choice readers I’ve got decide to put the money where their mouths are, let me make a plea that you not give Komen... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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