Posted on 05/19/2016 9:10:49 AM PDT by Jandy on Genesis
Alice C. Linsley
Gay activist Jonathan Charles Rauch describes himself as "an unrepentantly atheistic Jewish homosexual" which is to say that he has completely rejected the traditional wisdom of his ancestors.
Jonathan Rauch is so lacking in critical thinking skills as to be dangerous. Rauch’s “Case for Gay Marriage” is full of fallacious arguments, as I have demonstrated to my Ethics students.
J. Rauch’s First Premise:
Marriage is necessary to providing reliable caregivers.
This assumption is not true. It is, in fact, verifiable false since we are able to observe that reliable caregivers exist who are not married to the people to whom they provide care. In fact, some paid caregivers are superior in their reliability than some spouses.
Second Premise:
Marriage is necessary to tame men.
This assumption is hypothetical and unverifiable. The term "tame" has not been defined. Does it mean to make men more effeminate? Does it mean they learn to cook and clean? Does it mean that the responsibilities of marriage tend to mature a man? Why should this apply to men only? Are all unmarried men untamed? Are all married men tamed?
Conclusion:
Therefore, marriage is equally necessary for heterosexual and homosexual couples.
His conclusion is not valid. Rauch’s premises are not verifiably true, so this is not a sound argument.
Further, his conclusion does not logically follow from his premises, so this argument is not valid. Lacking true premises and a valid conclusion, Rauch’s argument is said to be “fallacious” or logically false. Time to call him out on his poor reasoning!
Rauch is a product of a society that is not able to discern legitimate expertise from popular pulp and:
Has lost the ability to use the library.
Fails to define terms and intentionally abuses language, making words mean whatever one wants them to mean.
Irresponsibly prolongs intellectual childhood to justify teaching less in more subjects.
Confuses fact and opinion, or the proven and the plausible, in the media and in public discourse.
Uses sophistry in public debate, rather than logical rhetoric.
A government that addresses mostly irrelevant matters to form public policy based on "diversity" and assertion of rights.
Has become so specialized that Americans are unable to make connections between the disciplines or integrate learning, which is a mark of true education.
Has produced thinkers who fail to adhere to the basic principles of logic, thus presenting speculation as facts.
The simple fact is that the purpose of marriage (from a secular society’s point of view) is to try to provide stable upbringing for the next generation of citizens.
Gays can’t produce the next generation of citizens, not without assistance from surrogates and doctors, or by adopting children, and so most of them will always be childless. Because of this, they have no need to be in stable relationships, because children are not an unavoidable result of gay couplings.
Now, just because they might be able to obtain children, gays will argue they should be able to get married in order to provide a stable home for the child. However, if they really cared about the children, they wouldn’t try so hard to obtain them when they knew they couldn’t provide that stable home in the first place, so we can see their stated motivations are a false veneer.
Marriage is a religious ceremony and commitment before God.
The civil society may want to encourage marriage for a variety of reasons. The fact that civil society approves or disapproves is not relevant
Whoever wrote this article needs to take several long refresher courses in English, public speaking, journalism & how not to sound like a moron when you are trying to make an argument. The last thing our side needs is someone attempting to make serious, educated arguments on moral issues and failing to convince others because he sounds like a moron. Harsh but nevertheless true ;)
Precisely. The licensure of mrriage by the state is not in any way a requisite for religious acknowledgement of the marriage of a man and a woman. In fact, the abandonment of marriage as a purely religious rite by the church has resulted in the destruction of the institution by the state.
Agreed
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