[Avodah] Clear Thinking About Male Homosexuals

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 01:17:36AM -0500, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: [1] It is not necessarily the case that all the seven mitzvos are
: things people instinctively know...

I also don't know why one has to posit this. I would think the 7 mitzvos
need only be accepted as the basic moral code all cultures *started* with.
After all, it's a beris made between HQBH and Adam (except for eiver min
hachai, as meat eating was assur entirely) and then another with Noach,
not some act of creation or divine berakhah.

But whether that's true, or the instinct thing is...

:                                   Eiver min hachai? Even murder --
: people may instinctively know that it's wrong in general, but they find
: it easy to rationalize exceptions in which it's fine...

But they start off knowing it's wrong. The gut or the value they inherited
told them there was something they needed to rationalize. If people
couldn't rationalize away decisions they know are bad, there would be no
sin. But when we want to do something, we can find arguments to quiet
down even the noisiest Jiminy Cricket or yeitzer hatov... It doesn't
mean he isn't in there yelling, though.

To continue RAM's thought, Lot's daughter is held accountable for naming
her kid Moav. Nu, she thought she was saving the world. But she was
expected to be embarassed about committing incest.

The Jews leavng Mitzrayim had assimilated the values of a culture that
practiced sexual licence. They were in the 49th shaar tum'ah after living
among those who committed "kemaaseh eretz Mitzrayim". The fact that they
learned Mitzrayim's rationalizations doesn't rule out the exitence of
the baseline they rationalized away from.

For that matter, ritual murder or deviant sex are pursued in some cultures
just in order to get the thrill of violation.

I'll deal with the evolution piece separately.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
micha at aishdas.org        "I am thought about, therefore I am -
http://www.aishdas.org   my existence depends upon the thought of a
Fax: (270) 514-1507      Supreme Being Who thinks me." - R' SR Hirsch