Scientists Think They Unlocked Gay Puzzle: Will this Change Your Opinion?

I would put this in current affairs, but I'm wondering if this will change the opinion of people who seem to believe that gayness is a choice and not a product of Nature's design.

Scientists May Have Finally Unlocked Puzzle of Why People Are Gay
Lesbians get it from fathers, gay men from mothers?

 

Isn't there like a 20 page thread already with this exact title?

Ahhh, its only 6 pages but still there.

http://www.politicalforum.com/current-events/279465-scientists-may-have-finally-unlocked-puzzle-why-people-gay.html

 

Cool, I'm not sorting through...what did you say in that one? If its genetic does your opinion change?

 

Oh, I haven't read the article yet so can't give you an opinion.

I always will lean towards empircal scientific evidence though, no matter which way it points.

 

People who use their religion to justify their dislike for gays won't accept this science, much like all the other science they won't accept.

 

Why can't you still dislike gays even if a genetic link is proven?

You can still dislike alcoholics and that's been proven to have genetic links.

 

Because nature intended their creation for good purposes?

 

Nature intended species to procreate and the evidence is all over for this. Its why certain species may be colored a certain way (to attract mates) or have instinctual things they do in regards to mating. That is the natural world.

Sure there are some cases of homosexuality in nature but there are also cases of rape (penguins in particular) killing the young, cannibalism ect. Does that mean humans should practice it?

Nature doesn't create things for good or bad purposes, it creates things for survival. Homosexuality is not anything to do with survival. Its apparently a genetic anomoly.

 

We can like or dislike anything we want and based on whatever reasoning we so desire. There's no question about that.

What a genetic causal link would do is put the Biblical God in a rather hypocritical position (assuming His existence) for railing against homosexuality since He is the supposed designer of the molecular processes of genetic design and expression. Of course, genes aren't static entities. Neither is the manner in which they are expressed (or suppressed). They are also quite responsive over time to the environment in which they function.

 

That's like blaming God if you get heart disease because your family has a history of it.

I am pre-disposed to alcoholism but that doesn't mean I have to drink, which I don't.

Just because you have a pre-disposition to homosexuality doesn't mean your forced to take that route.

I will tell you exactly how this will play out in the religious community. They will say that God has given us the link so that now we know what causes it and once the technology is a bit better we can genetically modify people at birth to remove this gene thereby curing gayness.

 

God or your parents?

Right but alcoholism is started once you've begun drinking, the neurotransmitters will react within your brain differently. There is active intitiation with alcoholism.

You are predisposed by makeup and cannot take another route successfully. Should they marry the opposite sex and have that person live a life where they are not overwhelmed with sexual passion, to have their spouse fantasize about others?

 

To be fair it's more likely that our species is more promiscuous and prefers to have sex much like other animals and sometimes the sex of the person doesn't matter to the individual because when you think about it through natural selection a species that wants to have sex a lot will more likely survive than a monogamous one so it's complicated in that respect.

As for it being in nature so it must be good I would agree that's a terrible argument that is fallacious though I always believe that things on a philosophical level should be fine as long as anything anyone is doing is consented by the individuals taking part and as long as this is followed I can't say it's inherently "wrong" though obviously philosophical beliefs can't always be put into practice, though the fact that I'm also a moral relativist makes my views on right and wrong more bleak for lack of a better descriptive.

 

I have no issue with people practicing homosexuality but I do when people claim that they have no choice in the matter or that its natural somehow. If it were as normal as hetoersexuality you would expect roughly half the humans on the planet to be gay which is not the case.

 

In the Bible, God doesn't equate heart disease with evil or condemn people for having it.

But I agree - a genetic predisposition isn't necessarily an irrevocable sentence to living out its potential. However, it's kind of like being born with an unconditionally inherited bent toward doing the very things that the Bible says will result in condemnation. Nobody raised their hand and volunteered to be clothed with a "sin nature" before being fitted with a fetal body (or however we imagine it to be). But regardless of that, in the eyes of Biblical Christianity their guilt and condemnation is still automatically guaranteed. As a result, the Christian gospel is to be spread as a message that in spite of that horrendous situation, they can still be saved from their impending judgement if they believe Christ died as their judicial proxy. In a way, it sounds kind of perverse.

 

Normal is about statistics, natural is about occurrence in nature. The extremely intelligent are abnormal, but naturally occurring.

 

Well I can't really argue the religious side since I'm an atheist so I'll have to leave that response to others.

 

just because your family has a history of alcoholism doesn't mean you are pre-disposed to alcoholism... you may be, and is best not to test it out, but there is no test to tell you that your genes say you are pre-disposed to alcoholism

 

did you have a choice? I know I am heterosexual and never had a choice

I think bi-sexuals may not understand this, because they HAVE a choice that heterosexuals and homosexuals do not have - as they are sexually attracted to both sexes, are you sexually attracted to both sexes?


.

 

Being left handed is as normal as being right handed, but 50% of humans are not left handed.

You seem to be confusing "normal" with some statistical number.
It is normal for me to predominately use my left hand, but it is not normal for the majority of people to predominately use their left hand.

 

What would you say about pedophilia? That would probably be also naturally occurring but is it right? Yes I understand the difference that homosexuality is about 2 consenting adults but I am debating the point that just because it happens naturally it must be right or that God must want it this way.

 

It doesn't matter if it is naturally occurring, it causes harm to a person. Killing is naturally occurring, but is illegal because it causes harm.
Homosexuality between consenting adults does not cause harm.

 

I actually agree everyone has a choice on how to act on their feelings but it's whether acting on these feeling do any harm to someone else is only really when I have a problem. Though it is natural, everything that appears in nature is natural, it being common or uncommon also says nothing about it.

 

What if it is just an abnormality like pedophilia? Even if it does not cause harm, should we be encouraging it if it is an abnormality? Or how about bestiality? I could say it is natural. It is between a consenting adult and an animal whose consent really is not needed. Done the right way, it does not harm people. By the same standards, would you say that the natural way or how God intended it to be?

 

Bestiality harms the animal.

 

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element. Is it right for me to put in my bosses coffee? I'm saying... YES!!!! But that's another issue...