Letter #268: Creation Speaks

We Shouldn't Close our Ears

Spench,

The other day, I listened to Ross Douthat interview Peter Thiel. They discussed subjects dear to our hearts, including the role of religion in a transhuman world.

Douthat pointed out that “the promise of Christianity in the end is you get the perfected body and the perfected soul through God’s grace. And the person who tries to do it on their own with a bunch of machines is likely to end up as a dystopian character.”

Thiel responded: “I think the word ‘nature’ does not occur once in the Old Testament. And so there is a world in which, a sense in which, the way I understand the Judeo-Christian inspiration is it is about transcending nature.”

I strongly disagree with Thiel here. The word “nature” may not appear in the Old Testament but nature itself does. It’s called creation, and it proclaims the glory of God and the work of his hands. While Christianity assumes that nature, especially human nature, is corrupted, there remains a sense that it is, in essence, good — as God said it was when he made it.

I think there has been a long assault on our natural sense of things. Many on the left tell us that our morals, our traditions, even our knowledge of ourselves as male and female are simply social constructs that can be erased through the delicate process of screaming, “You’re a racist,” at anyone who tries to defend them. Many on the right go so far to the other side that they believe morality and traditions should constrain our natural longings to an immiserating, soul-destroying degree.

But I don’t think original sin makes us blind to the moral order. It simply makes it difficult to follow that order and clouds our minds with arguments for ignoring it. Deep down, we are still well able to distinguish right from wrong.

I bring all this up because I think that virginity is clearly different in a woman than in a man. More: I think we all know it is. Women not only come equipped with a maidenhead that marks the state, but they are somewhat prone to fall in love with the man who breaks it. The whole system seems designed to say: this body was meant to be given in marriage.

Now, you can tell me all about what your church believes and you can make arguments that men should remain virgins for this reason or that. But there’s clearly a gender difference in the experience, and I don’t see why we should have to pretend there isn’t.

This, too, after all, is the work of God’s hands. And before we start making rules and reciting catechisms, maybe we ought to have a free-ranging discussion about what he was trying to say.

Another natural feeling is patriotism! And so I wish all our U.S. readers a fabulous Fourth. Whoever you are, if you’re an American, you are luckier than you could possibly deserve. Enjoy it!

Love, Dad