Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Instincts Lead Us Astray
Leftists believe that people are not naturally inclined to be monogamous. They claim that being faithful to only one other person goes against our instincts, our desires for variety and danger … forbidden fruit, and all that.
Leftists are entirely right.
We want to do bad things. Man, in a state of nature, is no prize. Just watch Twitter feeds covering urban violence. Look at adultery rates, about people claiming they have to be “true to their nature” while denying any responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
Biblical commandments are not there because they are common sense. They are there because, absent the commandments, we would do otherwise.
So while Leftists might be right about the description of the problem, we differ entirely on the solution to that problem. They want us to be true to our nature as large apes. But the Torah wants us to resist our natures, to rise above our basest desires, to understand that a meaningful and a holy life requires us not to harmonize with nature, but to act against our animal instincts.
Published in General
Amen, and preach it!
Our Judeo-Christian heritage has been the foundation for a moral conscience in the West for thousands of years. The undermining of that heritage is the primary reason so many today have no moral conscience.
And if you do not punish wrongdoing, you encourage it. Witness the explosion of shoplifting.
Although, it is interesting, with moral teaching it feels good to do what is right. Or it feels right to do what is good. One or both.
Be very careful with that phrase. Leftists believe that Utopia can be crafted, if they have sufficient power. They will do anything and proclaim anything, if it furthers their effort to destroy the existing society and thus make way for their supposed utopia.
“Men are not inclined to be monogamous “
Men and women’s base animal instincts are not always good for a civil society or even our own well being as individuals.
These instincts seemingly derive from a pre-human animal past where survival of the fittest reined and love did not exist.
Those who choose to indulge these baser instincts do so at the expense of loving relationships, which the Leftists in their deranged emotional pain can’t conceive of.
Who is strong? He who has control over himself. That is true power.
Coleman Hughes talked to Jerry Coyne in a podcast recently. Jerry Coyne is a retired evolutionary biologist. He said men want to spread their genes far and wide, and he mentions Genghis Khan’s large progeny.
But then Jerry says this: “You don’t draw your morals from biology.” See 01:07:00:
Which is precisely where the common culture is now. And for that very reason!
Did Coyne have any basis for such morality?
I didn’t hear any basis other than his own opinion about what was reasonable. “But in terms of the moral and legal equality of people, I don’t see why your sexual identity should have anything to do with that except…The bathroom case, that doesn’t worry me too much, because I’ve used unisex bathrooms so long. We have some in our department here….”
“Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above”.
Katherine Hepburn, The African Queen.
One of the great movie quotes of all time.
Leftists present a a having it both ways argument when it comes to nature. If say homosexuality or promiscuous behavior is unnatural among civilized man they will point they will find all sorts of examples in other species of those behaviors.
Then they will turn around and tell you man is destroying nature and deny that man himself is a part of the natural order of things. Are we above nature or are we in nature and equal to all other species?
Forbidden?
The attraction of things that do not belong to us, including other peoples’ spouses.