Universal Questions - Ultimate Answers: Norms
Week 2, Semester 2, 2022
Big Questions
Norms: What leads to flourishing?
A Case Study: Sexual Morality
How did we get here?
The new morality promised: free
Has it worked?
“A lot of us are having a lot of bad sex. Unwanted, depressing, even traumatic: if this is ordinary, something is deeply wrong… The goal of this book is to reassure you that you’re not crazy. That the thing you sense is wrong is wrong. That there is something unmistakably off in the way we’ve been going about sex and dating”. —Christine Emba, Rethinking Sex: A Provocation
“When I’m criticizing consent, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have it or that there should be consent police making sure that every encounter is ideal. But I also think that we can have better norms and a higher standard for what we look for in sex and what we expect of each other, post-consent, to bring us closer toward having more good interactions as opposed to more bad or mediocre ones.” —Christine Emba, Vox Interview
This has consequences. Research shows that, despite the often valiant efforts of single mothers, children without fathers at home do not do as well as other children on average. Fatherlessness is associated with higher youth offending and incarceration rates for boys, higher rates of teenage pregnancy for girls, and a greater likelihood of emotional and behavioural problems for both sexes.
This is not only because children are denied the material support their fathers might have given them, but also because single mothers are obliged to take on the almost impossible task of doing everything themselves: all of the earning, plus all of the caring, socialising and disciplining of their children. —Louise Perry, ‘The Case Against the Sexual Revolution’
The Biblical Story
Creation
‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth’ —Genesis 1:1
God is a God of
God is a God of
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. —Genesis 2:24
Fall
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” —Genesis 3:1-5
S_hove off_
I_‘m in charge_
N_obody tells me what to do_
Jesus
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” —Matthew 22:34-40
A higher standard I propose … is this idea of willing the good of the other, which basically means caring about the other person’s experience, about the other person, as much as you would care about yourself in any sexual encounter. And ideally trying to figure out what the good would look for them and for you together, and aiming your encounters toward that. —Christine Emba, Time Magazine
In order to change the incentive structure, we would need a technology that discourages short-termism in male sexual behaviour, protects the economic interests of mothers and creates a stable environment for the raising of children.
And we do already have such a technology, even if it is old, clunky and prone to periodic failure.
It’s called marriage. —Louise Perry, ‘The Case Against the Sexual Revolution’
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. —Matthew 22:39
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst —1 Timothy 1:15
Jesus is not just thebut also the who takes the initiative for a helpless humanity.
We don’t
We are
What does this mean for us?
Humbly living out an
Greater than the