there is the Temperance Movement, which sought to acquire prohibition. It was almost exclusively a religious movement. Once Women’s Suffrage https://www.evelon.co.uk became a popular call of social justice, the churches adopted some ideas of equality for women. I already covered the topic of general religious influence on moral or social ideas, in the essay The Religious Rule, which proved to be a bit overly thorough. This essay is an examination of the same topic, but with different ideas and a different end. I know that I’ve talked about it before, and I briefly answered the arguments in many essays. The argument I am going to address here is the argument of nature. That is to say, what is or is not natural. The need for me to address this topic in my other writings is obvious. Many of my pieces are taken from the standpoint of an anti-religious, anti-church position. Since many churches support one thing or another, often on the simple claim of “what is natural,” I’ve always had to address the issue. But, in this piece, I take a slightly more in depth study of the matter.

Christian Fundamentalists of our day are guilty of using the argument “it is natural” or “it is unnatural” in a number of social issues. When it comes to abortion, homosexuality and alternative or non-monogamous sexualities, euthanasia, or stem cell research and cloning, many Christians take the oppositional position. And, a good part of the time, we will always hear that recurring echo of nature. What is natural is always associated with good, sometimes substituted for it, just the way what is unnatural is always associated with the bad and harmful. Never are these associations justified. They are all just assumed. The conclusion to these assumed ideas, however, results in some rather oppressive and socially unhealthy policy, influenced by religious followers. It should also be noted, that on these issues, as far as what is natural or unnatural, the religious followers call themselves the final judges. Many of them take for granted society’s preconceived ideas about what is natural or unnatural. When we think of the way nature operates, for instance, we are familiar with all aspects of it: the sustaining of life and its reproduction. Since homosexuality does not sustain the end of reproduction, many people will confess that it must be unnatural. However, not all people go so far as to say, that since it is unnatural, it must be prohibited and suppressed. But, then again, there are many followers of the unseen who neither believe that homosexuality is unnatural or that it should be banned.

However, as I stated above, your standard advocate of Christian policy in government, either through school prayer or banning abortion, always reserves themselves as the final judge of what is natural or unnatural. Those insatiable lynch mobs that are known to murdering blacks, atheists, homosexuals, and “the impure” never sought to understand what is natural or unnatural, or why it is deserving of such a title. Today’s Fundamentalists of Christian ideology have not taken on this quest, either. In their speeches, they will make a thousand references to what is or is not natural — not once, do I recall, ever hearing a satisfactory definition of the term. I have heard attempts from some believers, but they only proved to be better with blindly following than with debate and argument. But, that is my question. What is natural? And what is unnatural? I already stated what society has concluded on these questions: there’s just a vague association of the natural with sustaining life and its reproduction, and little more that is definitive.

Are the tools which humans craft natural? Are buildings, technology, science, and all the other marvels of innovation unnatural? If one were to classify homosexuality as unnatural, simply because it doesn’t appear to serve any end in nature, then why isn’t the bulk of what we do considered unnatural? And how come these enemies of a new vision of sexuality are not opposed to every technological advancement? After all, these creations of our mind and hands are not a part of any ecosystem on this planet. They appear nowhere on this world, except in our own secluded society of humanity. I imagine most responses would sound something like this: “While these things that we create and maintain are not occurring anywhere in nature, they still are natural. All other organisms seek an end that satisfies their interests. Predators hunt, prey avoid those who would eat them, and all organisms enter the world of the living with the desire or plan to reproduce. Humans, in like fashion, seek to obtain their ends, like any other species. However, we simply go about it at a more advanced pace than any other organism on this planet.” And, such an argument would definitely have some merit to it. After all, it is common to find some primates using tools, such as bludgeons and clubs. Many birds also build structures, many of them sharing a fair comparison to human construction. What initially sounded alien and foreign to nature, our technology, actually appears regularly in our animal counterparts. It must be admitted, that the progress of political ideas and organizational structure of human society is a type of technology. And, it must similarly be confessed, that animals oftentimes organize themselves in to groups, in order to accomplish a task that wouldn’t be possible without cooperation.