The way Pope VI talks about faithfulness is quite striking; he says: “Married love is also faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death. This is how husband and wife understood it on the day on which, fully aware of what they were doing, they freely vowed themselves to one another in marriage. Though this fidelity of husband and wife sometimes presents difficulties, no one has the right to assert that it is impossible; it is, on the contrary, always honorable and meritorious. The example of countless married couples proves not only that fidelity is in accord with the nature of marriage, but also that it is the source of profound and enduring happiness” (9th Paragraph). This basically means that husband and wife must be faithful to each other, that being a faithful husband/wife might be hard but not impossible, and that faithfulness brings happiness into marriages and also makes them last.
Well, this sounds perfectly plausible to me, but I strongly disagree with the way Pope VI presents unfaithfulness; he set it outs as a ‘no-no’, which in my opinion, is a huge mistake in the sense that doing so goes against one, if not the most fundamental human right: Freedom. Religion and society have both made the same mistake: Trying to deprive human beings from their liberty by prohibiting them to do certain things. Prohibiting people from using drugs/alcohol/weapons, from seeing people naked and from downloading music/software/movies for free (just to name a few examples) have resulted in drug/alcohol/weapon traffic, ‘bootlegging’ and strip clubs. All human beings have desires (some good, some bad) and will always find ways to express their desires or to live however they want to live; the best way to get humans to follow rules/ prevent them from doing certain things isn’t to ban things, but to explain why humans shouldn’t do certain things, to explain how to do the things they want us to do (i.e how to be a faithful husband/wife), and also to take action against people 
who do those things rather than just saying: “Don’t do this or that” because the reality is that humans can do whatever they feel like doing (and some people do). Society uses science and logic/reason to come with up new bans while religions (all of them) have set up rules based on the fact they know the ‘truth’, but why would humans follow the rules set up by lawmakers or ‘religion’ rather than living their lives the way they intend to live their lives? Neither society nor religions have succeeded in persuading all humans to live their lives in a certain way (probably because neither of them has figured out the way every single human is supposed to live his/her life yet). After taking this course (and learning all the things I've learned about cultures, bodies, history and ‘knowledge’), I’ve come to realize that the world—us humans to be more specific—is a work in progress; we don’t have it all figured out, we’re not there yet.
who do those things rather than just saying: “Don’t do this or that” because the reality is that humans can do whatever they feel like doing (and some people do). Society uses science and logic/reason to come with up new bans while religions (all of them) have set up rules based on the fact they know the ‘truth’, but why would humans follow the rules set up by lawmakers or ‘religion’ rather than living their lives the way they intend to live their lives? Neither society nor religions have succeeded in persuading all humans to live their lives in a certain way (probably because neither of them has figured out the way every single human is supposed to live his/her life yet). After taking this course (and learning all the things I've learned about cultures, bodies, history and ‘knowledge’), I’ve come to realize that the world—us humans to be more specific—is a work in progress; we don’t have it all figured out, we’re not there yet.
While I agree with most of what you say here, I don't think that it is really justifiable to say that we can do whatever we want. People find ways to avoid following laws, yes, but we are all to some degree guided by personal laws, most of which are built from those of lawmakers and religion. We are a work in progress but I think we need to remember we are a result of progress. I agree that it is not ideal to have religious and federal laws because they could not possibly ascertain to every individual. I think that, remembering where we came from and the morals that built our society, we have evolved enough to live a little more by our own natural laws.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what you are saying but I do not think being faithful is 'honorable and meritorious.' I feel that when you decide to marry someone, at that moment you choose to be faithful. That is isn't something that should be praised for that it is just something that you do in a marriage. Yes, I do understand that humans can do what ever they want. I just believe when you get married you promise to be faithful to one another, and like the Pope says it does bring happiness into the relationship when that promise is kept.
ReplyDelete