Saturday, 10 January 2009

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    the Bible and its brethren: Semantical Minefield or Indisputable Authority?

    Drumroll please. That's the cue to begin the oft-overused performance of eye-rolling.

    My babble for today aims to examine the probably overused and most definitely misused word 'natural'. With no offence meant towards the Holy Scriptures and what it stands for (you who abide by its rules or so claim to do, yeah you, what DOES it really stand for? I defy you to tell me that), I have met many a person who has figuratively waved it in my face as a visual representation of their conception of 'natural'.

    God made men and women so that they could get together and do naughty stuff and have kids. Therefore it is unnatural for men and men to be together, unnatural for women and women to be together. My question therefore runs thus "What do you mean when you say natural?".

    Shrug..

    "Perhaps you mean normative."

    What is so unnatural about like being with like? Aren't they both carbon  based with human mental and physical faculties beings born of a set of parents? Do hardcore religious fundamentalists really believe that the so-called unnaturals (transexuals, homosexuals, asexuals, hemaphrodites and the like) are inorganic in make-up? How very Dark Ages of them no?

    And so, with the simple understanding of their usage of the word "natural" to mean "normative", it should stand to reason that such notions are in its very base unnatural to begin with. As a product of social construct, it holds no absolute weight as a value measure and is nothing more or less than just arbitrary. To build on this idea, arbitrariness inherently lends to itself the virtue (loosely used of course) of being completely malleable to change.

    The question then should naturally lead itself to this, which authority holds the moral right to arbitrarily decide what is natural or what isn't, regardless of its obeisence to the absolute and indisputable scientific definition of what constitutes a natural state (carbon based to you dum-dums). Even a surface understanding of the character of this particular position should be reason enough for this very definition to immediately loose its credibilty.

    Which in turn brings us to the perpetual question of, "if it's that simple, then why hasn't it?". Although there's no hard and fast answer to a question like this (and I would completely understand it if most people would prefer not to even think of the possibilities of having even thought about this asking this question in the first place) the very inidication that very few have stayed by this rambling this far (for those who have, you're probably a thinker and is automatically exempt from this overly verbose diatribe) is a strong indicator of the malaise that has the population of Mankind by the balls: complacency and an overacceptance of the status quo no matter how unjust or unjustified they may be.

    Bleak as the prospects may be (if one were to merely extrapolate the prospects of the future based on the trends of today), I remain optimistic that people in general will one day come to their senses (the age of Enlightenment in Eighteen Century Europe did not happen concurrently with the weakening of the Church and its rhethorical and semantical dominance by mere coincidence).

    I've been quite vocal (such a pity that my circle of willing listeners are so small) that humanity in general has been pretty much in decline as of late. A simple cogitation upon what has transpired lately would provide more than sufficient evidence that civilisation (careful of the meaning of this word ya'll, I use this loosely too) is suffering from a very bad case of degeneration, reverse evolution if you will.

    Religion and politics has once again muscled their way into the forefront of human consciousness (for people who seem to care anyway, the rest that do not are more than happy to be settled by emerging new acts like Lady Gaga and discussions on "What is Beyonce going to do next": this does not suggest that I do not engage in such activities, I'm just saying it's not the only thing that I do not that there's anything wrong if you choose to not care and be stooopid <used loosely again, sheesh, political correctness is just annoying>) but see now, I digress so far that I can't even find my point in this overly long sentence. I begin this train of thought again.

    The point is, I am optimistic that one day, enough people to matter will wake up and say "I've had enough of this bovine excrement" and start thinking again.

    Once upon a time, it was accepted as 'natural' (see what I mean by overused and misused?) that African Negroes deserved no fundamental rights. President Obama of the US of A has shown to us that it is possible for humanity to move ahead, throw off the shackles of irrationality (loosely used, from this point forth abbreviated as l.u.) and begin the natural (l.u.) process of thought and rationale.

    When enough people are riled into thinking, mass thinking will realise that these arbiters (spellcheck anyone?) of meaning are guided by their desire (it's not even a need, the selfish bastards) to stay in power no matter the cost and are therefore in no position to act as moral guardians of the people.

    Which brings me back to the thesis of this ramble.

    People in positions of authority (Church, State, whatever..) should really look to the people who put them there to determine the value of vice and virtue with mass consideration before carving the resolution down in ice (geddit? It's semi-permanent). In so saying, although I am sad that Prop 8 in California was passed, I'm glad of the potential good that this precedent has set in motion: people now have the chance to take a step back, think and perform a bit of self-examination: "Why did this come to pass?". <<<Proponents of Prop 8 and people who are conceptually in the same frame of mind (ergo Republicans-Ann Coulter take note, religious fundamentalists, self-righteous buggers etc) are exempt from this exercise: philosophisising has never really been a strong suit of yours to begin with. 

    disclaimer: This thoughts should in no way be taken as the Gospel Truth as these are just personal ruminations meant to twist panties and manties in knots.

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