LETTER: Fallacy found in gay letter

Editor,

A recent letter to the editor was more than a little amusing. Amusing because the author so clearly found himself very clever. He spent a good deal of time rehearsing faulty logic which he found in the arguments against same-sex marriage, and I could tell he was chuckling to himself while he did it.

While I’m sure he was endlessly amused with himself, it was a little sad that his logic didn’t go far enough for him to come up with one single reason why society should redefine the institution of marriage. It has been said that the reason leftist liberals spend so much time attacking others, and so little time presenting positive alternatives, is that they simply cannot fathom that any logical person could possibly disagree with them. Their view of what is right and wrong is so perfectly clear that it brooks no disagreement. That’s right, they think that all of us who disagree with them (and most radical leftist ideas are opposed by the majority of society) are either ignorant beyond education, or simply evil. I suppose it’s easier to use that assumption than to actually defend untenable positions. Going to the actual point made by the recent letter, marriage is not a right guaranteed in any federal or state constitution. There are various groups that have been prohibited from marrying, such as immediate family members, minors, and the mentally incompetent. Marriage has existed as a societal institution for millennia, and it is society that must decide whether or not the time has come to change that institution. Therefore, in this case, it is not a fallacy to reference the view of the majority in defending the traditional definition of marriage, and that smug smile on the face of the previous letter’s author no longer seems so smug, does it?

Jeremy Kidd