Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The Perpetual Idiot

I knew better and I went and did it anyway. I went to Vox Day's blog and had a look around.

I swear I can't figure out how the man manages to stand up and breathe, he's got such a twisted view of how the world works. Rape is the moral equivalent of consensual non-marital sex. Women can't hack high-level physics. (I'd love to show that one to my brother's girlfriend the physicist, but I'm afraid she might bust something laughing.)

I mean, if the man had the sense God gave a kumquat, he might realize that there are entire women's colleges out there with physics departments. They aren't having tea parties in the labs Vox!

I won't even go for the low blow that our dear demented one hardly writes hard SF himself. Tempting though it might be, it isn't really fair, since it is not always necessary to do something oneself to have a valid opinion. I will point out, however, that it is not required to have a Ph.D. to write hard SF. All that is really required is to have a good grasp of how science works and the current state of it, and good research and extrapolative skills. I have no idea how Vox stands on the second. I know he hasn't got diddly for the first. He may extoll science, but he certainly doesn't understand it.

The whole moral absolutism thing is a hoot, too. Moral absolutism? I've never met a pure moral absolutist in my life. Most people are situational though, and that's a good thing. Because absolutes make good principles, but they stink when it comes to real life. Thou shalt not bear false witness? Tell it to the nuns hiding Jewish children in Germany. Honor thy mother and father? Difficult when one's mother and father aren't honoring one another in the least. Or when a parent is an addict, or demented, or any of a hundred other things. Life is messy. Absolutes provide guides for navigating the morass, not rods for sticking up our asses.

Plus I've never bought that moral things are moral because God said so and for no other reason. Things that hurt other living beings are immoral. Doubly so if the living beings in question are sapient. Vox says that if God said rape were moral, than rape would be moral. I call BS. "Because I said so, and I created you, so there!" is the reasoning of an abusive parent, not a loving God. God gave me a brain, and a conscience, and I intend to use them, thank you very much.

Or to put it more bluntly - If Vox is absolutely and completely correct about God, and how God rules the universe, and you can prove it to me absolutely, then I refuse to worship God on moral grounds. He can throw me in Hell, and I will go happily, because I would rather burn than worship something that evil.

Got it? Good.

Fortunately I don't believe in an cruel, evil, and arbitrary God. If I'm wrong, so be it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Vox appears to me to be a pathological liar. Or at the very least he appears to exaggerate extremely when it's not necessary. Best to just ignore the diminutive little narcissist, he tries so hard to get out of daddy's shadow and he never can. It's sad to watch him try.

Anonymous said...

He also appears to be a psychopath.