Ayo so I was watching
this guy sift through 30 year-old Usenet archives. Along his journey, he stumbled upon this exquisite pieces of prose using Aquinian natural law to debate whether AID was/is divine retribution:On Forbidden Lusts
"Nature prevails! They cannot change!"
So claim the advocates of strange
Deviants, queers with untam'd haste,
Monstrosities of perverse taste.
The passion in their fetid veins
Knows not Reason nor its reins,
Pursues freedom, looser, faster,
And all desires, without master.
But Nature's Wisdom not deceiv'd
A balance seeks, and soon retriev'd.
Through lessons shows us Her Design,
Her Laws, for us, that realign.
Her Judgments firm, they tempt pi-ty.
Yet look not from adversity!
Yon' microbe spread, infect'd bowel,
The ruptur'd gland, and blood-stain'd towel.
For Nature guides us, us, Her maids.
Her latest Truth, reveal'd, is AIDS.
And we, the Wise, we know Her trade:
"To be commanded, first obeyed."
First of all Anon bro goes for the jugular with the "pursues all desires without master". Not even 6 bars in and they're already dropping free will! I think they're going into how "legitimate authority is one of Aquinas's 4 conditions, but not quite sure. Second, now I've lost a few brain cells since taking ethics, but I think Anon bro is talking ab how Aquinas had four "hierarchies" of laws. The common argument I hear from liberal Christians is the Divine Law argument is irrelevant because obvi a lot of the civil law in the Torah was basic s___ that people had to do to stay free of disease 3000 years ago and they just said it was from God because that made explaining why you should do it a lot easier. However, Anon bro simply tosses in an Uno Reverse card by saying "Nah b, natural law's pretty against that s___ too." Tbh aside from the faulty premises the reasoning's at least logically consistent overall.
In elder times there was a land
With peaceful love on evr'y hand
Until puffed up with deadly hate
The Underman began to prate:
"Nature prevails! And therefor ye
No beauty in gay love must see!"
And hearing him, there came a day
When all gay love they drove away.
The elder gods took note of this
And saw them turning thus from bliss
And sorrowful they loosed the chain
Which held back population gain.
The land the people cannot till
And all of them are dead or or ill
But thank the gods that they are straight
And eat the penalty of hate.
So they with evil chose to side
And Nature claim to be their guide
But Nature whom they thought would save
Unheeding laid them in their grave.
Gene Ward Smith (RIP) on the other hand
(quite the certified G), my guy he's throwing sustainability into this. So he's not only going directly against the Elohist command in Genesis 1:28, . Remember this was still '93, the very fact bro's saying sexual congress has purposes other than procreation was a stand in of itself. Dude straight up told Aquinas to f___ off. He's also bringing in some Kantian s___. I don't remember whether Kant explicitly stated whether self-sustenance was a maxim, but I'd contend its a categorical imperative given its damn near university applicable. Likewise he does fall into the trap of thinking LGBT heads don't always want kids but it makes sense given the hardware deficiencies.
1. What other philosophical traditions you see in these arguments?
2. Where does this exchange rank among the great rap battles of our generation?
3. Who'd ya think had the more compelling argument if you were an alien who came to earth, somehow knew all this vocabulary, but didn't know s___ ab Western Philosophy or the med science around AIDS?
