Editor:
Alumnus Trevor Burnett’s letter (Jan. 14’s “Society has a moral obligation to protect marriage leaves me baffled at how someone can get a college degree without getting an education.
This nation was “founded on Christian principles?” No, the principal founders were Deists or the equivalent of Unitarians, some of whom, especially Jefferson, considered Christianity a pox on the world. True, Jefferson
applied the word “Christian” to himself, but only in the sense that he considered Jesus to be a great humanist whose belief in his own
inspiration was no different from that of Socrates.
Now, I would not publicly insult someone’s education if his or her lack thereof didn’t manifest itself as, and indeed support, a stupid, intolerant moral philosophy. I may well suffer an “ick” factor upon imagining homosexual sex
-that is only natural for some of us-but this is purely subjective and it is fallacious to conclude from your own psychological condition that homosexuality per se is objectively immoral.
In fact, to conclude that homosexuality is immoral at all is impossible without appealing to subjective, irrational feelings or to religious dogma-neither of which has ever formed the basis of our legal system.
As for no-fault divorce, consider the effect on children of their parents duking it out in the courtroom (and wasting money on lawyers) over whose “fault” it is that sometimes good intentions don’t work out.
Parents who might otherwise part cooperatively and relatively amicably are pressured to force their kids to take sides.
Sean Peckham
Senior, Computer Science