Why We Should Not Always Follow Our Instincts

If you have read my previous post, you would know that I try to make sure that my social media circles have a wide range of opinions and that it does not become an echo chamber. In light of this, I follow a certain twitter account called Queer Theology. I disagree with many of the things this account posts because I disagree with some of their preconceptions and beliefs; including, but not limited to, their twitter banner that says "the image of God is transgender." That phrase, however, is not the topic of this essay; rather, the topic of this essay is a tweet that they made on Sunday, February 12th.

"The day we stop resisting out instincts, we'll have learned how to live. - Federico Garcia Lorca"

I think this quote is falacious for many reasons, however, they fall into two main points: One, this quote goes against scripture; and Two, this quote presents a danger to society. First of all, this quote goes against scripture. This quote is, in essence, saying that we should live our lives by simply doing whatever our instincts tell us to. One must simply look to Romans 7 to see why scripture says that blindly following our instincts is foolish. Romans 7:18-19 (ESV) says "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." Paul is saying in these verses that his spirit, and you can easily extrapolate this idea out to include your's, is inherently evil. The conclusion drawn from this is rather simple: why would we, knowing that our nature is not good, ever stop resisting said evil nature and/or the impulses, or instincts, that come from our evil nature?

Secondly, this quote presents a danger to society and one doesn't even need to cite scripture to prove why this quote is injudicious; one simply needs to apply a small amount of critical thinking. My reasoning is as follows: if the only way to live is to give in to our instincts, then this logic train thinks that truly living means throwing away basic civility and culture since we would be doing whatever our instincts tell us to; from taking a plate of food that somebody else already bought because we thought it looked good to stealing somebody's hat and then beating them half to death when they try to get it back. The implications to society are rather easy to see, though some might argue otherwise since society as we know it would cease to exist. If every being on this earth took this quote to heart, we would see a degree of lawlessness that even the most ardent anarcho-capitalist would distance themselves from. We would be no better, and the case could be made that we would be worse, than animals.

I understand that the person who is cited for this quote was a Spanish poet and might not have meant what I inferred his quote to mean, and if that is the case then I might have to change my stance towards this. However, until somebody can show me the context of this quote and/or why I am misinterpreting it, I will stand by what I have written, that this quote is false since it does not stand up to either scripture or basic scrutiny and that it presents a danger to society if taken to heart by even one person.