Monday, October 09, 2006
Matrimony
Today we talked about matrimony and it being a natural institution for humans to have sex. St. Thomas Aquinas deduces this from other animals and reason. However, it seems as if his reasoning is faulty and starts off where he shouldn’t have – with animals.
Humans are distinctly different from any other animal and, while we cannot take an example from the animal kingdom to explain our consciousness, we should not take an example for our sexual formation. It seems pretty obvious that men wish to spread their seeds to as many females as possible. Thus, it would be in the complete opposite to reason for a male to court only one person. Although this is our natural way, it does not mean that it should be that way. The intertwining of sexual relationships with emotional relationships over the millennia of human development has turned humans from polygamy towards monogamy because humans realize that when a partner receives sexual gratification from another person other than his or her partner, that affects the partner’s life. This has nothing to do with caring for the child because, in all reality, it is not necessary to have multiple parents for a child. Penguins must have another to help make sure an egg doesn’t freeze but humans are not in the same situation.
I believe that humans are, in nature, very lustful creatures but they are also logical. In being logical, people realize their behavior as faulty or hurtful and can change it accordingly. Aquinas’ argument for monogamous matrimony is completely different from fact.
Humans are distinctly different from any other animal and, while we cannot take an example from the animal kingdom to explain our consciousness, we should not take an example for our sexual formation. It seems pretty obvious that men wish to spread their seeds to as many females as possible. Thus, it would be in the complete opposite to reason for a male to court only one person. Although this is our natural way, it does not mean that it should be that way. The intertwining of sexual relationships with emotional relationships over the millennia of human development has turned humans from polygamy towards monogamy because humans realize that when a partner receives sexual gratification from another person other than his or her partner, that affects the partner’s life. This has nothing to do with caring for the child because, in all reality, it is not necessary to have multiple parents for a child. Penguins must have another to help make sure an egg doesn’t freeze but humans are not in the same situation.
I believe that humans are, in nature, very lustful creatures but they are also logical. In being logical, people realize their behavior as faulty or hurtful and can change it accordingly. Aquinas’ argument for monogamous matrimony is completely different from fact.
# posted by Anonymous @ 1:03 PM 
