Inasmuch as we don’t begin to dismantle unjust discriminatory systems then we will consistently have violent eruptions ...
Natural law theology is a way of sanctifying this hierarchy of exploitation. It suggests that this wasn’t just a human creation, but divine law. This was the way God designed things to be. ...
The whole premise of this argument is faulty.
The idea is that "equality" is the real 'natural order',
and that it is also a realistic goal to strive for.
Real differences, such as natural ability, the will to excel, uneven distribution of resources, societal specialization are supposed to be ignored, in the drive to make everyone "equal".
But this naive over-literal caricaturization of Christian dogma is not only worthless and destructive, it completely undermines all scientific and logical, fair systems based on merit and human achievement.
Thus in sports, transgender men were allowed to compete directly with women, and beat them senseless, instead of preserving natural categories.
This was also tried in the early UFC fights, where weight and size categories were ignored in favour of a mythical "level playing field", when in reality,
size, weight etc. DO matter and contribute to athletic ability.
Thus, 300 lb wrestlers clobber 100 lb wrestlers with equal skill sets,
and 6'6" basketball players have an advantage over 5'4" players with the same training. Weightlifters with more muscle obviously lift more.
The lesson for the UFC was that weight categories had to be restored,
and rules previously thought unnecessary were found mandatory for
fair competition.
Weight, age and gender categories are known to be necessary and provide both fair competition and meet safety requirements for organized sport.
In hard science fields, there are significant differences in preferences
between men and women, and in spite of funding, advertizing, equal opportunity and non-discrimination legislation, and forced enrollment and hiring practices, women aren't very interested in engineering, physics and math compared to men.
Thus Gender categories and funding allocation make good economic sense
and provide realistic programs that result in graduation proportions that
people actually want.
Humankind as a social animal has always engaged in functional specialization and assignment of tasks required for survival, protection, and advance.
Its as natural for children to stay home and prepare meals as it is for
pregnant and nursing women to stay home alongside the elderly,
while younger stronger males engaged in hunting, hard labour,
construction and defence.
The function of a complex society with deep specialization must inevitably
lead to practical inequality in both the quality and distribution of labour and
resources.
Its in fact impossible to create or sustain a modern complex specialized
society without severe inequalities.
But the answer isn't to artificially 'force-flatten' real or imagined "inequality"
with mandatory redistribution of "wealth" or abolish ownership or
any other hairbrained and naive ideas.
The scientific answer is to create systems that work as closely and
as efficiently as possible which are based on MERIT, rewarding those
who strive and compete using better quality or performance,
rewarding those who have higher intelligence and skills,
and encouraging all to achieve their personal best.
In a merit-based system, specialization, which is necessary, is possible,
and at least reward and punishment can be logically comprehensible and
perceived to be the 'fairest possible system' in spite of inevitable inequalities.
The garbage-man and tax-collector may perceive that the doctor or
engineer is paid more, but they can also self-evaluate their own
importance realistically, and strive to improve their position in a complex
specialized society and a competing marketplace of labour and talent.
There can be no equality, but there can be a practical level of fairness.
What Christianity provides, when properly interpreted and applied,
is a recognition of the mobility of individual status, and the reward
for merit, merits such as honesty, hard work, and care about others.
What Christianity protects against, when properly interpreted and applied,
is the over-exploitation of the vulnerable, such as children, elderly,
weak and sick, handicapped, etc.
Thus Christianity prescribes 'mercy', and reallocation of some percentage
of resources to care for marginalized and vulnerable categories of people,
and it does this in a sensible way, by allowing people themselves to
recognize distress and pain, danger and exploitation, and compensate
for it by adjustment of resources.
Christianity does this by enshrining the VALUE of the marginalized,
the vulnerable, the sick, the old, the abandoned, the orphan.
In doing so, it provides the reason for preferring more humane
treatment of people than a strictly "scientific" or "efficient" utility principle
would allow.
Thus Christianity acts as a 'valve' and a means for the avoidance
of extremist error such as the devaluing of persons based on their
apparent or immediate "utility" to others or society.
People are granted under the Christian system with an intrinsic minimum value,
and a respect which is defined by access to resources and
the meeting of personal needs.
Equality is impossible, but love and mercy are easily manageable
conduits which allow a society to have flexibility, adaptibility, and
a power and quality of life for individuals not possible under any other
regime or ideology.
Especially faulty are materialist and communistic concepts based
on an individual's 'utility' to a society, but which don't allow the reciprocal
and reverse flow of the society and community's 'utility' to the individual.
