Saturday, July 07, 2012

Human Sexuality: A Choice and Nothing More

The post might as well be entitled with the simple assertion known to philosophers throughout the ages that all human thought is the consequence of a free will choice. That "thought" which is involuntary or otherwise practically inaccessible is not thought. Thought is a higher level cognitive function and as such it is something that is entirely within our ability to control. To the degree that an individual can conceive of an idea, that idea is a choice. Hence, all thought is the consequence of a choice. Human sexuality as we understand it is one of those choices.

There is a political effort these days to obfuscate the choice of sexuality by giving it a status that is interchangeably a choice or an unchangeable state of nature (alternatively dependent on the immediate political objective of the one making the mutually exclusive assertions).
If sexuality were an unchangeable state of nature, then no thought would be associated with it. Hence, the ability to express oneself intellectually through sexuality would be an absurdity. Rather, one reflects on unchangeable states of nature—they do not become it anymore than one becomes the clothes they wear.

On the other hand, if we accept that sexuality is a human choice, then we must accept full responsibility for that choice. This responsibility is known to us as "morality". Morality is simply the realization that we are responsible for our thoughts and consequent actions. When this morality is internalized, we call this "character". For good or bad, our character is the expression of choice.
So, the next time that someone insists that sexuality be enshrined as a human right, our response should first be pity for their foolishness. It should not be to be the fool. Time permitting, you might refer them to this post should pity tend towards a desire for their intellectual rehabilitation.

Please note that there is one misunderstanding of information that claims that what we think of free will is not free, but rather the result of random complexity. This idea is easily refuted by remembering that no deterministic system can innovate beyond its initial conditions and structure. Random complexity in this meaning is still deterministic (such as chaos). However, we conceive of new ideas in all scopes of our existence. While our capacity for understanding may not be boundless, we innovate in directions that almost surely can be associated with our presumption of causality. Thus, for all intents and purposes and for none others, we think therefore we are (causal autonomous learning agents) and have the imperative to regulate ourselves morally.