Mill, Kant, Religion, And Gay Marriage
In theory, freedom and liberty for all appears to be an excellent concept, one which nearly everyone would embrace. However, the practice of this ideology is not always as halcyon as its theoretical mandate. Quite frequently, it is possible for there to be conflicts of interests presented due to the notion that everyone feels entitled to pursue that which he or she wishes. There are numerous examples of this intrinsic conflict of what essentially is a question of free will. One of the most salient of these examples can be illustrated in the issue of the rights of gays to pursue lawful marriage. On the one hand, various members of the gay and lesbian community believe that they should be legally permitted to engage in same sex marriages under their rights of freedom and the pursuance of their own respective happiness.
The conflict, of course, lies in the fact that there are other groups of people -- quite frequently those who adhered to particular organized religions, including Christianity -- for whom the allowance of same sex marriages is forbidden in scriptures and according to their theological beliefs. What one group perceives as a question of right, the other group also sees as a matter of right -- since many religious adherents have made the case that their religious liberty is being violated by the exercise of liberty for gays to engage in same sex marriages. An examination of a pair of ethical principles, one championed by John Stuart Mill known as utilitarianism, and the other propagated by Immanuel Kant which largely revolved around his conception of the categorical imperative, helps to settle this conflict of interests.
In order to determine how to best apply each of the aforementioned theories from these respective philosophers to this particular issue, one needs to significantly analyze the viewpoints of each interested party in the aforementioned debate. The ideology with which proponents of same sex marriages utilize to validate their perspective is fairly self explanatory. This group of people believes that they should be permitted to legally marry one another due to the notion that there is "liberty and justice for all." Furthermore, such liberty and justice allows them to pursue their own sense of happiness, which in this particular example is germane to their marriage with one another. Furthermore, typical arguments attached to this side of the issue contend that people have little choice in their sexual preference, some of which is genetic and nearly all of which has been preordained. Therefore, to disallow them marry one another would be a violation of their rights to liberty and justice, since they did not choose nor ask to be homosexual. Additionally, this same line of reasoning is used to fuel the notion that permitting them to intermarry with each other is highly akin permitting heterosexual people to marry -- since in both instances, people are only doing what is their national proclivity in regards to their sexuality.
However, those opposed to same sex marriages usually cite the fact that such unions are at variance with views posited by their respective religions, which tend to be monotheistic and typically involve Christianity, although it is quite possible for followers of Islam and Judaism to adopt this point-of-view as well. There are usually scriptural references to reinforce these claims, which are generally made due to the fact that the only truly lawful unions are between men and women, and that same sex marriages do not conform to this tradition or standard. Furthermore, those who believe that gay marriages should be deemed unlawful believe that the allowance of such occurrences are not only immoral, but actually are in violation of their right to the pursuit of
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