About same sex marriage?

The issue isn't about intelligence. its about empathy and understanding of basic civil rights.

the reason you'll find so many unthinking people on the side against gay marriage is because there is absolutely positively no reason to be against gay marriage except for slippery slope fallacies, and rampant homophobia.

if there is no victim, there is no crime. if Christians don't want to get gay married, they should marry someone from the opposite gender. problem solved.

I don't think it's about being dumber, it's more about using arguments that make one look ignorant. A few common examples of this are Appeal to Tradition, Appeal to Majority, and Appeal to a False Authority.

Fallacy: "Gay marriage is not right because millions of American oppose it. In recent polls, the majority of Americans just don't want it."

Why it's a fallacy: This is an Appeal to the Majority. Just because the majority people believe in something, it doesn't make it right or fair. Remember, the majority of Americans once also believed that segregation was the right thing to do. We have a Constitution to protect people from this Tyranny of the Majority.

Fallacy: "Marriage has ALWAYS been between one man and one woman! Who are they to change that?"

Why it's a fallacy: This is an Appeal to Tradition. Just because something has always been one way or the other doesn't make it right. Children were always forced to work in industrialized society until we outlawed the practice. The world was always thought to be flat until we found out it wasn't.

Fallacy: "The Bible says homosexual acts are a sin." (When used as an argument)

Why it's a fallacy: The Bible isn't a universally accepted authority on morality.

They betray their stupidity with the arguments that they make against gay marriage.

People who are against gay marriage:

1. Don't understand history - they claim the definition of marriage has never changed, but this is completely disproven by history over and over.

2. Can't understand logic - they don't see that the exact same arguments were used to forbid the marriage of black people (to each other), and interracial and interreligious marriages. They use slippery slope arguments that would make any Debate 101 teacher cringe in horror.

3. Can't understand the difference between rape and a loving relationship between two adults - they claim that pedophilia is next.

4. Have zero compassion.

5. Believe any idiot thing they hear on the internet - they always talk about preachers being forced to marry gays, completely ignorant of the fact that churches are allowed to turn anyone away for any reason.

6. Can't comprehend that schools are not teaching the kids about gay sex just because they're teaching them to respect gay people and their children.

7. Most do not understand separation of church and state and the fact that the Bible can't be used to make laws. They are also completely unaware of the fact that a great many of the US founders were not Christian. They continue to insist that they were all Christian.

8. Most claim they live by the Bible, completely ignorant of all the laws in the Bible.

9. Think that they know better than every scientist in the world who says that being gay is not a choice, and insist that the monozygotic twin studies that show that identical twins separated at birth have a 90% of both being gay if one is is a just a coincidence.

10. Accuse every gay person in the world of lying about the fact that they weren't born that way.

11. Believe that they know better than every pediatrician, psycologist, pscyhiatrist, and child services expert who have shown in study after study that gay parents don't have a bad effect on children.

12. Believe that gay people have sex without love because they know better than the hundreds of psychological studies which have found zero difference in the emotional quality of relationships of straight people and gay people.

13. Completely ignore the fact that most gay people are monogamous, and simply claim that that's impossible.

14. Believe that being gay is a mental disorder even though the criteria necessary for something to be a mental disorder includes that it has to cause distress or danger, and being gay does not fit the definition.

15. They believe that the well being of their marriages hinges on the marriages of other people. No smart person could think of this idea as even remotely plausible.

That, my friends, adds up to stupid.

It's not about being smarter or dumber, it is about discrimination. We faced this same issue 20 or so years ago when inter-racial couples were becoming acceptable.

I don't know where you are getting the smarter/dumber thing from, but it is a poor argument on either side.

Edit:

Strange, why do Christians always seem to feel like they are being called "dumb", is it a part of their built in persecution complex or is it a small recognition of their cognitive dissonance?

The debate on this question bemuses me somewhat!

I do not see the problem....at all, of course, if any 2 people love each other,they should be able to make the same commitment to each other as any other 2 people.

Or would the moralists among you prefer to see people running from partner to partner, with no commitment to anyone but themselves?

It's a no brainer!

And I don't know about you personally, but me.....There is no law they could pass....no oppression that individuals or governments could impose, that would keep me from dedicating myself to the people I love.

The people who are against love and togethernes, well, I suspect you "Just don't like their kind".

Dangerous viewpoint, its called fascism.

Vernon.

The more I read of your answers....the more I like you....adding myself as a fan. :-)

Because they fail to understand that gay marriage, like any other, is simply marriage between two people who love each other. That's all there is to it.

[edit] Almighty Atheist:

You said: "I personally say it should be legal for gays to have some rights." --- SOME RIGHTS?

What about the same rights as everyone else?

i'm against any marriage, straight or gay, being recognized by the government. marriage is a religious ceremony and as such has no bearing in politics, and likewise the government should have no say who can marry who. if a man wants to marry another, he should be allowed to do it. if the church he belongs to will not perform the ceremony, he should find a new church. i believe, in the end, those churches which are resistant to change will eventually fall on their own.

No one has the right to force stupidity and bigotry into our laws.

"The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretense, infringed.'' - James Madison (Original wording of the First Amendment; Annals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789).)

It is only a matter of time before this be before the Supreme Court Justices and they will have no choice but to rule that denying marriage based on gender is unconstitutional.

I qualify the intelligence of a person on their answer to the question. If it starts something like, "Well, in the bible..." or "Traditionally marriage,"...or "What about polygamy?", or "I'm only thinking about the children...", then I know they have neither sought out information from unbiased sources, nor studied history. Also, each answer contains not a single original thought.

So, yes, if the person uses any one of those excuses, or the few other ones about the human race dying out if we allow all American citizens their Constitutional rights, my opinion will, and does, slap a dumb as a rock label on them.

i agree with you, there are just a lot of jack asses out there regardless of their religious beliefs.

people who are against it should just bite their damn tongues. it is none of your business. ever heard the term "live and let live"

but to answer your question, i think the reason people say the anti-gay people are "dumber" is they don't mean in the knowledge sense of the word, but in common sense meaning they don't realize they should just keep their thoughts to themselves and not be so intolerant

You're right.

:)

I'm not sure I agree that there isn't a difference between your opinion. There is a right and wrong issue here. But, you are right that people's opinions on things like this doesn't make you a dumber or smarter person. W