Sam, Mike, and fan-favorite Libbie return to answer some of your emails.
Sam Mulvey is a producer and the technical brain behind Ask an Atheist. He is a collector of vinegar varieties, vintage computers, antique radios, and propaganda.
Great show!
You asked for secular arguments against gay marriage. I have actually heard several arguments, mostly against gay rights generally, from atheists. On that wretched hive of scum and villainy that is Youtube. Here they are, briefly: A) Gay and lesbian kids will corrupt your children and turn them gay. Gay and lesbian adults will seduce your spouses and turn them gay. Oddly enough, straight people don’t turn your kids or lovers straight; I guess gay sex is just that powerful. One commenter who espoused this also said that straight people can’t have opposite-sex friends, because they will inevitably want to… Read more »
Oh, I forgot part of B).
One person told me that homosexuality was inherently religious, because they were both rejections of evolution. And therefore the same.
Yeah. There are some crazy people out there, and some are atheists! Doesn’t that make you feel… included…
Oh, and for abortion (shorter list): A) Against late-term abortions, the argument that a fetus has at that point reached a cognitive capacity where killing it is murder. Somewhat similar to the animal rights argument that anything with the capacity to suffer or feel pain should not be harmed. B) I’ve only heard one argument against early abortions, all the way to dealing with embryonic stem cell research and such. That argument is just a semantic one, that murder is the killing of a human being, and a human being is anything that is a) human (I guess, having a… Read more »
Ha, I keep thinking of things to mention. I was actually at the Colorado Senate Judiciary’s hearing on a civil union bill today. Almost everyone testifying for the opposition did one of three things:
a) Waved a Bible (literally: I guess we needed the visual aid)
b) Argued that the bill was unpopular rather than that it was bad
c) Did the Catholic thing where they said that being gay was unnatural, where “unnatural” is defined to mean “counter to Catholic beliefs about God’s will”.
The one exception? Anus/Stalin lady. That’s a clip of her 6 minute rant.
Hey Sean–
Thanks for the info, can you shoot me some videos of people actually saying these things? I know that wasn’t part of the deal, but having that bit would be good for the show.
-Sam
Hey, this Matt. I’m the guy that called in from Memphis. Just thought I’d add something here. I’m not sure if the hosts mentioned it, but the issue isn’t simply whether or not people have come up with “nonreligious” reasons to oppose gay marriage. As Sean has shown, people have come up with tons of stupid token “secular” reasons to oppose it. But none of them actually make any sense or are supported by any sort of legitimate evidence or data, and, to the extent that any of these are based in reality, they would apply equally to heterosexual marriages.… Read more »
Thanks for pointing that out, Matt. Yes, the point is, are there any RATIONAL secular reasons to oppose gay rights, abortion, etc.? “Gay sex seems icky to me personally” isn’t exactly rational. It’s based on personal feeling. And so what if gay people might turn your kids gay? (they won’t, of course.) What’s specifically wrong from a SECULAR standpoint with being gay? So far I haven’t seen anything both rational and secular to argue against equal rights for all people. And, like Matt, I also know a lot of younger religious people who support gay marriage. I think that’s very… Read more »
Wow, the Stalin/Anus lady is excellent footage.