What do you think of this exchange between NPR host David Greene and John Trandem, who owns an auto body shop in North Dakota?
TRANDEM: I don’t think it’s a matter of whether or not you legalize same-sex marriage. It’s a matter of whether or not you remove the definition of marriage. You know, if marriage is defined as an institution involving one man and one woman, that’s what it is. If you want to create a union with a man and you’re a man, that’s not marriage. And under the guise of equality, if we were to … amend the definition of marriage to include one man and one man, how would we logically and rationally be able to exclude two men and two women or three men or three women if equality is the endgame?
GREENE: Three men and three women, like three people getting married or…
TRANDEM: I’d say six people getting – well, it doesn’t matter. … The magic behind the number two [man and woman] is biology – which we’re getting rid of that – and tradition. And we’re getting rid of that.
Mr. Trandem is very articulate, isn’t he? If you listen to the audio version, you’ll also discover that he’s an earnest, decent-sounding man. But I think he might be surprised at what can unfold once arguments from “biology” and “tradition” are opened.
In this post, I’ll consider the “biology” argument. The plea to tradition will be the subject of the next post.
The argument from biology, as I’ve usually heard it stated, is not that homosexual behavior is unknown elsewhere in the animal kingdom. It does occur, although bisexuality would better describe what goes on in the vast majority of cases.
Rather, the argument from biology centers on the fact that a homosexual marriage cannot produce children. That alone, the argument goes, should be enough to indicate that such marriages are unnatural and wrong.
Really? Do those who make such arguments say that a fertile man ought not marry an infertile woman? Or that two infertile people should never marry? Of course they don’t. They know that companionship, pleasure and fidelity are justification enough for both sex and marriage. Homosexual couples have all of those.
“But at least sex in a barren heterosexual marriage looks like sex in a fertile one,” they say. “At least they are going through the same motions.”
Are the motions what’s important? If we’re making an argument from biology, isn’t the actual biology what’s important? And isn’t the actual biological result in both cases (homosexual marriage and childless heterosexual marriage) the same?
The argument from biology also turns on those who use it in a way that might strike closer to home. If we want an institution of marriage that favors reproductive success, then, like so many of our mammal cousins, we should push for marriage between one dominant male and several females, leaving the other males out in the cold.
An alpha wolf might look at our society and sneer, “Those awful humans. They let anyone mate! Even the weak get to have children. It just ain’t natural! And it’s not good for the species, either.”
In short, the argument from biology will take its aherents where they don’t want to go. Applied consistently, it will force them to prohibit some heterosexual marriages, and maybe even call the whole idea of monogamy into question.
Next time: the argument from tradition.
Path of the Beagle 
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Whoever said marriage is between one man and one woman never married an Italian American woman. It is one man and one mother in law ,and father in law,43 cousins in law 10 uncles in law, 6 aunts in law, 14 great aunt and uncles in law and 4 grand parents in law, oh yes and one woman.
In an age where women are equal to men and have access to birth control, and everyone has access to as many no-fault divorcees as they wish, and people are free to have children out of wedlock, marriage can no longer be defined by the raising of children. All of that’s true without even having to play the gay card.
At first, thanks for sharing this nice article. This post is so much informative. I think all man and women must know about such things that useful them after marriage life.
Homosexuality is abnormal and destructive and even though you have lost your faith in the Bible, you cannot possibly be so far gone into humanism/atheism that you deny that which is staggeringly obvious. Some atheists are opposed to homosexual “marriage” and yet they reject the Bible but they still see abnormality dressed up as normality when they are confronted with it i.e “gay” marriage. In a normal marriage i.e man/woman, the couple may be unable to have children but they are still reflecting normality because marriage is only marriage when contracted between a man and a woman. Yet you compare infertile heterosexual married couples with homosexual “unions” when there is no comparison to be made. Have you considered the destructive nature of homosexual practice because they literally are “killing each other” behind closed doors by engaging in abnormal, life-threatening practices. Do you not know about the case of Dr.Church in Boston USA who was sacked for daring to speak of the physical dangers of homosexual practice. Also you should search the internet for the case of Pastor Chuck McIlhenny who was targeted for murder by homosexuals because he fired a homosexual organist. Mercifully he and his family were unharmed, but the intent on the part of the “gays” was to kill. I write as a Bible-believing Christian who did not have to abandon my critical faculties to embrace Biblical Christianity, although I concede that there are troubling portions of Scripture. However, you, as a non-believer ought to know from simple observation that homosexuality is wrong.