We've seen a lot of courts strike down gay marriage bans in recent weeks and in recent months
and the judges always seem to make a very similar point:
tradition is a bad reason to keep the bans in effect.
Just because we've limited marriage to one man and one woman for a really long time,
doesn't mean it's the only way to do things
or that it's the best way to do things.
We've all heard these arguments about how the definition of marriage,
or the tradition of marriage, has changed over time.
Our society no longer allows children to get married,
or one man to marry multiple women.
We can get married for love, and not because of property.
Those were traditions. Those traditions change
and we're all better off because of it.
On a broader scale though, I think we all need to pay very close attention
anytime we're doing things on the basis of tradition.
It suggests that we shouldn't even think about it anymore; that we should just do it
because that's how it's always been done.
For example, remember when Pluto became not a planet?
So many people were open arms about it and...
It really didn't make any sense. There are so many good scientific reasons
why Pluto shouldn't have been a planet.
But the people, the traditionalists, said, "no,
I remember the mnemonic that has Pluto in it and therefore it should be a planet".
Or... "It's always been a planet as long I've been alive.
So, we should just keep that going".
I mean, sometimes you have to break with tradition.
It was wrong to begin with and there's no reason to keep it going.
And when it comes to religion, we encounter the same type of thinking,
especially when it comes to church-state separation cases.
Religious conservatives love tradition
because it means they're on top of the world.
It's not like atheists were fighting them several decades ago.
For example, take “In God We Trust” on our money.
Why is it there? It's because Christians pushed it through the government in the 1950s,
no one challenged them on it,
and all of a sudden it just kind of became "ceremonial".
Courts even today say, "well, in God We Trust isn't promotion of religion",
even though it's completely promotion of religion.
They say, "yo, this is just a motto.
This is just, you know, a saying, it's ceremonial, it doesn't really promote religion over non-religion".
Which is complete BS but that's the argument.
It's been that way, so why change it?
Why not remove "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance?
Same reason. Because it's always been there.
Even though it totally hasn't always been in there.
Every time you hear Christians argue that we should keep "Under God" on the Pledge,
they never seem to mention that the original pledge
didn't have the words "Under God" in it.
But, it's tradition. At least, for the last fifty some years.
So, we might as well keep it going.
Ditto with the Ten Commandments displays on government buildings
or something like the Mount Soledad Cross in San Diego.
Christians put them up several decades ago.
No one challenged them and all of a sudden it just became "tradition".
This is a reason I really appreciate atheists.
Atheists aren't afraid to break with tradition.
I mean, many of us became atheists
because we started challenging an idea that had been in our family for a really long time.
Tradition is never a good enough justification to keep a bad idea going.
And I love it that atheist organizations, church-state separation groups,
are at least now willing to say, "we are gonna fight
because tradition isn't a good enough reason to let these
legal problems stand.
And by the way, whenever a tradition stops,
we get pretty used to whatever takes its place.
Kids growing up today
will likely always see marriage as a commitment between two people who love each other
regardless of gender.
It’s not like they’re gonna look back to the good old days when were discriminating against gays and lesbians.
So, I wanna know from you all.
What traditions have you broken with? Has that worked out for you?
And are there any traditions you think are worth keeping?
Let us know on the comments.
My name is Hemant Mehta and I write at friendlyatheist.com
Leave a comment below,
and we will check it out, and don't forget to subscribe.