In some discussions people have been making arguments based upon something being "natural" or "unnatural".
Something "unnatural" is assumed to be "bad" and this justifies prejudice against it.
What do you mean when you say something is unnatural?
All human behaviour is a part of nature, a part of the physical world, the material world.
In this sense everything is natural. How could it not be? Having sex with children, others of the same or opposite sex, sheep, etc., are all events that occur in nature and are natural.
Us
Homo sapiens are able to think like no other species. We can manipulate our environment like no other species.
Sometimes people use the word "natural" to refer to things not produced through these unique abilities.
Maybe it is something like this meaning that people are using when describing something as "unnatural" and "bad".
If you were using this meaning, rather than something like it, you must really hate people eating ice cream!!!!! Or perhaps you think
Homo sapiens are an "unnatural" species altogether?
Maybe you mean this though; that something is "unnatural" if you think it is very different from social behaviours that were well established in our species through our evolutionary history prior to modern societies.
However, if you don't know much about anthropology or the issues you are debating then it is very doubtful whether you really know what behvaiours were well established. You probably have no idea what you are talking about.
You would need to define "well established social practices", and have evidence that a practice use not to occur but does now. But you'll probably find that there are other practices that you have no problem with that use not to occur. Perhaps you could try to describe some practices as "fundamental social structures" or something. In any case, this still has nothing to do with something being "bad".
The last idea I have, and this is in fact the one that I think is closest to what people are thinking, is that you mean something "unnatural" is somehow against natural processes. That life, other than human life, doesn't evolve to produce the practice that you are interested in calling "bad".
Homosexuality is an example of a sexual behaviour that is very hard to understand through evolutionary theory.
Evolutionary theory is how we understand life. Natural selection is the most important theory for understanding how organisms become adapted to their environments.
Natural selection occurs when individuals with a certain version of a gene reproduce successfully at a higher rate than others.
Homosexuals, unless they still reproduce or contribute to the reproductive success of their relatives, are an evolutionary dead end. On the face of it you would think that if such a "trait" did appear that it would quickly become extinct.
Homosexuality, which is very likely influenced by genetics, seems to make no sense at all when considering the nature of natural selection. There is research trying to understand the evolution of the behaviour.
We did not evolve to have a monogamous heterosexual social structure.
We did not evolve to be anything at all.
We simply evolved.
A variety of sexual social structures have evolved.
Amongst the primates, to whom we belong, there are:
monogamous structures
polygamous structures
structures with one female and multiple males
etc.
There are also species where males are much larger than females, and species where males and females are of similar size (like ours).
Amongst our closets living relatives (chimps, bonobos):
there is a fission/fusion structure (highly promiscuous!)
"rape"
infanticide
homosexuality
incest
"pedophilia"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZiTzxL3Nh4There are also organisms that reproduce without sex, or have both male and female sexual parts (which can occur with people too).
Sometimes the sexual roles are reversed and it is the females that are larger, more aggressive, and compete over males; while the males contribute the most resources for the offspring through raising them.
I think that people just say something is "unnatural" when they don't like it and want to be derogatory.
Topic: What does "unnatural" mean to you?