A really dumb thing I heard on the radio

[Fight_n_back]

An NPR story on Spanish politics and the Gay Marriage debate there. A devout Catholic guy says (in Spanish)"Since Neo Lithic times, cultures have defined marriage as between a man and a woman."

So, the really stupid thing isn't that he is so obviuosly wrong. Cultures have defined marriage as between a man and as many women as he can afford and also defined it as between a man and a very feminine man or also as a man and his cousin. No, the stupid thing is...

As a devout, ultra-conservative, the Bible is literal and my god is supreme Catholic, you don't believe in Neo Lithic times you imbecile! Please, when using false information to rationalize your bigotry please stay within a consistent belief system.

Tha's all...please return to waiting for the Jackson jury to return with a verdict.

[Warpy]

1. Actually, the church officially accepted evolution

as the mechanism by which god did everything, making the genesis story of those six days into allegory (which it always was).

The church has made a lot of really awful, stupid mistakes, but they didn't make that one.

[LynzM]

2. LOL, good point.

Because that's more than 6000 years ago, right?

I find the ignorance of cultural systems of 'marriage' to be pretty amazing. Across cultures, there have been many different systems that defined marriage in many different ways...

[Fight_n_back]

5. Its a very interesting area to study

http://marriage.about.com/cs/generalhistory/a/marriagehistory.htm

http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp12132003.html

"I always say, and if you want to talk about homosexual unions in recorded history you should do some study first. First I recommend you read John Boswell's fine book Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (University of Chicago Press, 1980), in which he documents legally recognized homosexual marriage in ancient Rome extending into the Christian period, and his Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe (Villard Books, 1994), in which he discusses Church-blessed same-sex unions and even an ancient Christian same-sex nuptial liturgy."

[Terran]

3. For me, the ultimate comeback to that

(aside from your well-said points):

"Perhaps, but you see, we don't live in Neolithic times anymore."

[Iris]

6. yeah. Didn't they also drag women around by their hair back then?

;)

[Fight_n_back]

7. To not do so now

would be to turn our backs on thousands of years of human history. Women were considered property until very recently. In fact, Humans believed in slavery for a far longer time than we haven't. Therefore it was obviously wrong to outlaw it. In fact it was the primary economic piece of the antebellum South. To outlaw slavery is a slap in the face of our Christian forefathers who wrote the Constitution under devine guidance.

If they had wanted slavery outlawed they would have said so.

Likewise with abortion, it was the most practiced birth control of the time and was legal in every state. To be against abortion is to be against the very foundation of this republic!

Oh shit, this constitutional argument got away from me for a minute, let me check my revisionist to English dictionary.

[kliljedahl]

8. Only in Neolithic cartoons

Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Shadowen]

4. I believe the island of Lesbos...

...in the Greco-Roman era also allowed women and women to get married. (For that matter, Greece itself might also have, but I'm not so sure about that.)