¶ … Opponent to Gay Marriage offer Illusory Arguments
The book The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Chabris and Simons truly makes a strong case for how six different types of illusions (or beliefs) truly disserve the human population. The six common illusions that the book discusses are the illusion of memory, the illusion of confidence, the illusion of knowledge, the illusion of cause and the illusion of potential. Chabris and Simon argue that one can see these illusions at work in a range of human interactions and current events. Sometimes these illusions demonstrate the fallibility of the human mind; sometimes they just demonstrate the need of human beings to impose meaning or order upon things or events which lack both.
A current issue that demonstrates several of the six illusions that Chabris and Simons discuss is the debate over gay marriage. Those who oppose gay marriage often demonstrate an argument which is full of illusory and shoddy ideas. For example, one of the main arguments against gay marriage is that allowing homosexuals to marry will destroy the institution of marriage. This demonstrates the illusion of cause. "The illusion of cause arises when we see patterns in randomness, and we are most likely to see patterns when we think we understand what is causing them" (Chabris & Simons, p.155). The work of Stanley Kurtz tried to prove that allowing same-sex marriage in Denmark, Norway and Sweden decreased the rate of heterosexual marriage in these countries. Now, it's important to note that the work was discredited; however, it is a shining example of how people can shoddily attempt to create a sense of cause for a series of random and unconnected events. Another illusion of cause that is often brought to the front of the gay marriage debate by those who oppose it is that children...
Opponents use things like
juvenile delinquency,
juvenile offenders, and school drop-out rates as "evidence" for the damage of gay parenthood, but there has absolutely been no evidence of children being negatively impacted by being raised by gay parents. One could also argue that this viewpoint showcases the illusion of knowledge. Those who oppose gay marriage pretend to have knowledge about a phenomenon (dysfunctional children) and how they're created, when really, they just know that some households raise dysfunctional children, without knowing how or why this happens. This is akin to the example that Chabris and Simons offer about financial markets: as human beings we have a range of information about how they work and what is currently going on with them at the present moment. This gives the illusion that they're predictable or that we know what they're going to do next, when in reality we don't.
Another illusion that the gay marriage debate has swirled around that manifests the illusion of cause is the argument that if same-sex marriage is legalized, it will ultimately lead to polygamy. This argument, aside from lacking any real rationale, demonstrates how those who oppose gay marriage have no understanding of how a polygamist
society would evolve or how polygamy works. It also demonstrates the illusion of knowledge, because it fails to understand that if the country was truly worried about polygamy becoming the norm,
legislation could then be passed banning and illegalizing polygamy. Thus, this argument demonstrates a formidable lack of understanding or illusion of knowledge of the United States legal system.
Another illusion that those who oppose gay marriage assert is that legalizing gay marriage would require schools to teach tolerance. This demonstrates an illusion of knowledge because those who support this argument faultily seem to believe that teaching…
