The topic of gay marriage is a dividing issue within the United States. The issue has been prominent recently, with a number of back-and-forths such as South Carolina’s Amendment 1, California’s Proposition 8, and now the controversy surrounding Chick-Fil-A.The gay community and its supporters argue that the issue is one of human rights, that everybody should have the opportunity to express their love to their significant other. Communities opposed to gay marriage, particularity the religious community, claim that gay marriage would ‘redefine’ the traditional definition of marriage, and is a sin in God’s eyes. As such, gay marriage should not be allowed in the United States.

This is why that is total bullshit.

First, marriage does indeed have traditional and religious roots, but it is almost entirely a secular institution in the United States of America. Attached to the institution of marriage are a number of legal benefits afforded to both partners. These include joint adoption, status as next-of-kin for hosptical visits and medical decisions, joint insurance policies, inheritance automatically in the absence of a will, benefits such as annuities, pensions plans, wrongful death benefits for a surviving partner, and domestic violence protection orders, to list a very few. Only through marriage can these rights be conferred to a person or couple.

Thus, gay couples are denied legal protections and rights because they cannot get married, while straight couples are afforded them. No matter how you look at it, the simple fact is: gay people are not being afforded equal rights.It is, simply, discrimination.

Gay couples can get Civil Unions, which are claimed to be secular partnerships with similar legal endowments as marriage. The problem with these is massive, however: The US Federal Government does not recognize Civil Unions, and the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act specified that states do not need to recognize out-of-state Civil Unions. Thus, even these non-marriage routes do not solve the issue gay people are facing.

The other arguments against gay marriage commonly used are that it redefines traditional marriage and is a sin. Of course, who is determining ‘tradition’ for the marriage? The United States does not have a formal definition of marriage (nor as it should). Should, then, the traditional form of marriage be the Christian interpretation of marriage? It can be claimed that this is a ‘Christian’ nation, but this claim is with serious fault: though we are predominately Christian, we still possess large numbers of minorities and a diversity of beliefs. Such an argument panders directly to mob rule, and the protection of the minority from the mob was a goal expressly set about in the development of our country’s framework. Should it be drawn from another religion? The issue with using ‘tradition’ is whose tradition you will be using, and claiming that only one tradition can be used is dangerous and intolerant in the heterogeneous, melting-pot society we possess.

As for gay marriage being a sin, and thus should be outlawed: Here are some other sins, from the same book banning gay marriage, which equally deserve to be outlawed when using the arguments used against gay marriage.

• Round Haircuts (Leviticus 19:27): “You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard.”
• Football (Leviticus 11:8) “You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.” (discussing pigs)
• Fortune Telling (Leviticus 19:31) “Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.”
• Tattoos (Leviticus 19:28) “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.”
• Polyester, or other blends of fabric (Leviticus 19:19) “You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.”
• Shellfish (Leviticus 11:10) “But whatever is in the seas and in the rivers that does not have fins and scales among all the teeming life of the water, and among all the living creatures that are in the water, they are detestable things to you.”

You cannot pick and choose from God’s word as to what is wrong and what is acceptable. The people who are trying to prevent gay marriage have no defensible position on the matter, and are effectively discriminating against a significant portion of the population. Meanwhile, the arguments against gay-marriage are total bullshit.

Our solar system is a fascinating place: a collection of unique and magnificent worlds orbiting a brightly burning star. These worlds are, for most of us, quite familiar and recognizable. Going out from our Sun, you have the inner planets, all relatively small and rocky compared to the planets all farther out. There’s Mercury, named after the Roman messenger god,  which lives up to its name as it zips around the sun in just 88 days. There’s Venus, a world similar in shape and size to our own but with a runaway greenhouse effect that makes the surface hot enough to melt lead. There’s our home, the Earth, the only habitable planet that we’re aware of; a world of green and blue, with a breathable, temperate atmosphere and a vast diversity of life. Then there’s Mars, an ancient desert world once thought to have a considerable atmosphere and, perhaps, water oceans. The outer planets, lying at increasingly greater distances from the Sun, are also recognizable. Jupiter has its massive red spot, a twirling hurricane that’s lived for hundreds of years; Saturn has it’s magnificent rings. Uranus is tilted, and rotates, completely on its side; Neptune has an orbit that brings it outside that of Pluto’s every 200 years or so.

These great planets are familiar to us, and each are incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring in their own ways. They have been a source of constant study, and scientific revelation, to astronomers and scientists curious about the nature of our solar system and planets other than our own. However, perhaps  the greatest beauty and the most magnificent possibilities are found on worlds which aren’t as familiar to the average person. These worlds have been recently reveled to us, and they still hold many tantalizing secrets and answers, but they have opened and broadened our understanding of our universe, and could possibly become the most important places, other than the Earth, in the solar system. They might have liquid oceans. One has a considerable atmosphere and surface features familiar to us on Earth. One shoots off massive geysers of water and organic molecules. All three might sustain, and possess, life. These worlds I refer to are moons, and of them I refer most specifically to Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan.

Europa

Europa is Jupiter’s sixth closest moon. It’s still one of the larger worlds in the solar system, being slightly smaller than our own Moon. Its surface is a thick ice, but it is what is below the surface that makes Europa such a fascinating world. Most planetary scientists believe that vast liquid water oceans exist beneath the ice, warmed by the flexing pull of Jupiter’s gravity.

The effect of Jupiter’s gravity is impressive. Io, a moon slightly larger than our own and closer to Jupiter than Europa, is covered in volcanoes. The inside of the moon is churning magma, tugged by the force of gravity. These gravitational effects operate on Europa as well, though weakened because of distance. They warm the inside of the planet, heating the oceans beneath as the got closer to the core.

Europa has emerged as one of the most promising candidate for extraterrestrial life. The heat of Europa’s core, which is tugged and pulled on by Jupiter, could create volcanic activity on the surface of Europa’s ocean floor, and this would provide a habitat similar to Earth’s deep-oceans (assuming Europa indeed does possess these oceans). Life has been found to exist on Earth around deep-sea vents, and thus could exist deep in Europa. The possibility of life there has left astrobiologists and astronomers wanting to study Europa in further detail.

Beyond Europa and Jupiter is the next gas planet, Saturn. It has around it two incredible moons. Closer of the two is a moon very similar in situation to Europa.

Enceladus

The sixth-largest of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus is a a tiny world. It is only once-seventh the diameter of our own Moon, and its diameter is small enough to fit within the length of the Island of Great Britain. It experiences heating from Saturn’s gravitational pull, so the insides of this tiny world are warmed.

Enceladus seems to have a liquid ocean underneath its icy surface, like Europa. Volcanoes at the southern pole of Enceladus shoot large geysers of water ice into space, some of which falls back onto the moon and some of which go into Saturn’s rings. These geysers have indicated that there could be a close, sub-surface body of liquid water.

In May 2011 NASA scientists at the Enceladus Focus Group Conference stated that Enceladus “is emerging as the most habitable spot beyond Earth in the Solar System for life as we know it”.(1) Enceladus and Europa, two icy worlds with potential undersea oceans, might be the best chance we have to discovering if life exists outside the Earth.

Another moon of Saturn’s is also worthy of notice. It is unlike Europa or Enceladus, however. This world is unique in its nature, and worthy of study. It is, in some ways, resemblance of our own planet.

Titan

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, with a diameter almost 2/3rds the size of Mars. Titan is fascinating because it the only natural moon in the solar system known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only world other than the Earth where bodies of surface liquid have been found to exist.

Titan’s atmosphere is thick, almost twice as thick as Earths, and is rich in nitrogen. A thick haze hangs over the planet. The surface of Titan is geographically young, indicating erosion and volcanic activity. There exist bodies of liquid on Titan, composed primarily of methane. At the temperatures and pressures which Titan’s surface is subject to, Methane operates in a fashion similar to how Water operates on Earth, as a liquid, solid, and gas.

Titan has also been presented as a possible habitat for extraterrestrial life. It has been suggested that life could exist in the lakes of methane on Titan, which would use hydrogen in place of oxygen and to metabolize and exhale methane instead of carbon dioxide. However, these methanogenic life-forms are, to date, only hypothetical.

These moons are interesting and unique, and they present large possibilities for study. Europa and Enceladus are icy worlds, and might have liquid water oceans underneath them. These oceans could provide habitats for life, living near hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. Perhaps one day probes will be sent to drill into the icy surfaces of these planets and explore the oceans, sensing for biological traces and signatures

Titan presents an example of a world similar to our own, but also uniquely different. Pictures of its surface display a world similar to our own geographically, with rivers and oceans and bodies of land. Yet this world is much different than our own in composition, and demonstrates that natural processes we are familiar can operate with different chemicals. Perhaps life exists on Titan as well, using different chemicals than we do in the processes required to live.

Future study of our solar system will likely focus on these worlds. They present fantastic opportunities for discovery and to learn more about our own world.

Cited

(1) “Enceladus named sweetest spot for alien life” http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110531/full/news.2011.337.html