Unnatural – More Than one Meaning?

Unnatural – More Than One Meaning?

There are those words that have more than one way to be spelled, have more than one definition, and have more than one meaning. The word "second" can mean something that is right after the first, or it can be a unit of telling time. The word "unnatural" is a similar word. It has different meanings, but the meanings are also related. Burton Leiser questions the way "unnatural" is used when he hears people say that homosexual intercourse is unnatural.

Views on homosexuality were based on Christianity, which views homosexuality as unnatural, a violation of natural law, immoral, and condemnable. When we use the word "natural", we have to deal with how ambiguous it is. In nature, it can either mean one of two things. It either means that whatever is natural follows the law of nature, or that whatever is natural is not man-made or artificial.

The first argument on if homosexuality is unnatural is based on if it does not follow the laws of nature. The laws of nature are not guidelines that living beings enforce and follow. These laws describe how events in nature work. There is no punishment if the laws of nature can't be followed, but either way, the laws of nature can't be violated. There is no written law on how far and what direction a person's elbow or wrist will move or bend. The elbow naturally bends typically in one direction, closes at around 45 degrees and opens to about 180 degrees, while the wrist naturally bends slightly, but can bend in any direction. If the laws of nature are not followed, the end result can lead to an injury, such as a break, a sprain, or a dislocation. A person can't be condemned for not following how to naturally move his or her elbow or wrist, nor be rewarded for moving them naturally. The only way for a natural law to be broken or changed is for a certain event to completely change, like if all of a sudden, I could bend my elbow in any direction or I could bend my wrist farther back or forward towards my forearm. Homosexual behavior does not violate the laws of nature. The laws of nature describe what actually happens, and some people take part in homosexual activity. There are descriptions on how it happens, so it exists, and must be natural.

The second argument on if homosexuality is unnatural is based on if it is artificial. When something is artificial, it means that a person or a living being has turned something in nature from its natural state to something else. My spiral bound notebook is not natural because the substances that make it have been transformed from their natural state. A breakfast consisting of a bowl of cinnamon flavored oatmeal is not natural. The oats came from a seed in a plant in its natural form, but they are processed to ensure quicker cooking time and prevent spoilage. Cinnamon is natural, but in nature, it is not found ground,