It's time to draw the line in the sand: No on Prop. 1!

When we talk about reaching further than our ancestors -- by learning about the universe, pushing ourselves, expanding that "comfortable proscenium of our ancestors" -- it isn't just a matter of realizing that the universe is bigger, and older, and weirder, than anything humans could've imagined. The notion encompasses other ideas as well -- pushing ourselves ethically, for instance. One of the most brilliant parts of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion was the chapter on how we don't get our morals from the Bible. Ethics and morals, instead, have been a topic of constant discussion and exploration and progress. The Moral Zeitgeist, as he puts it, has grown over time. A progressive thinker of the 19th century, like Darwin, held many ideas that we find outrageous today -- on race, on gender, you name it.

As for the ancients, they were in most respects quite barbaric by our standards. The cosmopolitan Romans, for all their grandeur and advances, engaged in cruelties that shock us today. And the ancient Hebrews, whether in earlier times or in the time of Christ? Yeah. Barbarians is quite a good term for them. So I'm always a bit concerned with folks that try to claim their ethics are based in the Bible. Or try to make modern ethics more so. It seems like stepping backwards to me.

Case in point:  gay marriage. Modern ethics is actively engaged in an expansion here, right down to expanding the meaning of the word "marriage" beyond traditional usages. Because that is the great journey that we take in ethics when we dare. In Renaissance times, there were spirited debates on whether the natives of the New World were even people. We justifiably look at those views now as being absurd, and indeed evil. But the fight was fought, and slowly the ideas and definitions changed. We have advanced enough in our ethics that the very idea that people would even ask such questions amazes us. Likewise, I believe there will be a time when people will look at the debate over homosexuality, and rights for homosexuality, as equally absurd. Heck, many of us already do, and honestly have trouble even understanding why people get so worked up about it. But they do get worked up about it, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

In the U.S., we will see the latest round in the fight this fall, in Maine, when

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Proposition 1 goes before the voters. Prop. 1 will, if passed, override the Maine legislature's legalization of gay marriage. The Religious Right really, really wants to win this one, because it would be another brutal defeat for progressive forces.

The fight for gay rights has slowly been gaining steam of the last ten years. This fall, we have one of those points in history that could decide a lot of the future course of the fight. Greta Christina has an excellent post on why this one is so important. Go read, then get active. It's time to take the fight to the bastards. It's time to make the big push to expand our ethical proscenium just a little more. Let us fight this one so that the generations following us will be utterly and completely perplexed by how anyone could have questioned gay rights. Let's push humanity forward just a little bit more. Let's win Maine, and then the nation.