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Originally posted by defcon5
The following is my opinion as a member participating in this discussion.
I am not going to get involved in the whole pro/con sex debate here, I simply want to point out why using any animal nature to justify any human activity is a slippery slope, and a poor argument. I see this attempt to debate the topic put forth with some frequency, and it drives me crazy.
Animals suffer from “impulse control” issues, this is a scientifically proven fact.
Animals also engage in murder, cannibalism, infanticide, rape, and many other acts that I think everyone will have no problem with agreeing aren't acceptable for humans. In rectifying any set of human behavior to any set of animal behavior, you open the flood gates to saying other animal activity is also acceptable.
See the problem with this argument?As an ATS Staff Member, I will not moderate in threads such as this where I have participated as a member.
Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by Djayed
I know I am one of the first to come to the defense of homosexuality here. But I'm beginning to realize (finally) that it does no good to try to convince a bigoted segment of society that there's nothing wrong with homosexuality. People are going to believe what they believe. And if they believe they should have a say in how other people live their lives (anti-freedom), there's not much to be done about it.
Originally posted by DestroyDestroyDestroy
Originally posted by MuzzleBreak
Rape, murder, theft, cannibalism--all naturally occurring also.
Don't forget bigotry and prejudice.
Originally posted by daaskapital
Some of us are just saying that it isn't as natural, or normal as the OP claims it is.
Does the above make me bigoted or homophobic? i don't believe so.
Personally, i have friends who are homosexual, and i couldn't care one way or another about the issue.
Homosexual behaviors are acts.
Originally posted by johngrissom
You peeps believe in science and survival of the fittest, but do you honestly think that survival of the fittest means homosexuality wins???????? No, it doesn't there is no reproductive value with homosexuality. Someone else mentioned that rape, murder and various other things were part of population control. Sort of it is because that's what survival of the fittest is. The ones that can survive have a better chance of helping the population survive. Get it? You believe in no God and choose science but then only believe in half of what is there.
Sounds to me...you atheist science believers are no better than religious believers.
What is wrong with this planet. Bashing others for their beliefs but then turning around and doing the same thing with their beliefs. I think there is a word for that...hypocrite
Originally posted by Djayed
reply to post by daaskapital
That's my point Regarding the reproducing.....you would not be here right now commenting if we didn't have homosexuals all throughout history controlling population.....our cities would have been overcrowded hundreds of years ago .....and resources would have been gone before we had the technology to do anything about it.....
Originally posted by DestroyDestroyDestroy
It all comes down to how we perceive an act culturally. Because some asshat twisted gods' words to blast homosexuality does not make homosexuality inherently wrong, nor does it make cannibalism, rape, or murder inherently wrong.
Read the Christian bible from the 1500's it might change your opinions of those verses you are referencing the all mighty is against homosexuality....most of them originally meant evil acts....
The term homosexuality is a 19th century created term
There is a big difference between an act and what someone/something is.
Genes make up everything...eye color, hair color, etc, .even identical twins have differences...they are not even 100% alike....
I was born homosexual...just as someone is born black...if you are not homosexual, you cannot say for fact that is not true. Some studies show they rate of homosexuals in a family depend on how many women are in that family. Research is still being conducted, but when it boils down to it, it is not a metal disorder per the medical community, and you are referencing that it is conditions which is mental.....
Mainline Christian denominations in this country are bitterly divided over the question of homosexuality. For this reason it is important to ask what light, if any, the New Testament sheds on this controversial issue. Most people apparently assume that the New Testament expresses strong opposition to homosexuality, but this simply is not the case. The six propositions that follow, considered cumulatively, lead to the conclusion that the New Testament does not provide any direct guidance for understanding and making judgments about homosexuality in the modern world.
Proposition 1: Strictly speaking, the New Testament says nothing at all about homosexuality.
There is not a single Greek word or phrase in the entire New Testament that should be translated into English as “homosexual” or “homosexuality.” In fact, the very notion of “homosexuality”—like that of “heterosexuality,” “bisexuality,” and even “sexual orientation”—is essentially a modern concept that would simply have been unintelligible to the New Testament writers. The word “homosexuality” came into use only in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and, as New Testament scholar Victor Paul Furnish notes, it and related terms “presume an understanding of human sexuality that was possible only with the advent of modern psychological and sociological analysis.” In other words, “The ancient writers . . . were operating without the vaguest conception of what we have learned to call ‘sexual orientation’.”1 (In the rest of this article I shall use the terms “homosexual” and “homosexuality” strictly for the sake of convenience.)
Proposition 2: At most, there are only three passages in the entire New Testament that refer to what we today would call homosexual activity.
None of the four gospels mentions the subject. This means that, so far as we know, Jesus never spoke about homosexuality, and we simply have no way of determining what his attitude toward it might have been. Moreover, there is nothing about homosexuality in the Book of Acts, in Hebrews, in Revelation, or in the letters attributed to James, Peter, John, and Jude. Further, homosexuality is not mentioned in ten of the thirteen letters attributed to Paul. It is only in Romans 1:26–27, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, and 1 Timothy 1:8–11 that there may be references to homosexuality.2 The paucity of references to homosexuality in the New Testament suggests that it was not a matter of major concern either for Jesus or for the early Christian movement.
Proposition 3: Two of the three passages that possibly refer to homosexuality are simply more-or-less miscellaneous catalogs of behaviors that are regarded as unacceptable, with no particular emphasis placed on any individual item in the list.
1 Corinthians 6:9–10 says that certain types of people “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” The list of such people begins with fornicators, idolaters, and adulterers, and it ends with thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, and robbers. Near the middle—between adulterers and thieves—are the two Greek words translated in the New Revised Standard Version as “male prostitutes” (that is, homosexual male prostitutes) and “sodomites.” But no special emphasis is placed on these people; they are simply listed along with the others. Similarly, 1 Timothy 1:8–11 says that the law was given not for good people but for bad people, and it then provides a list, giving representative examples of who these “bad people” might be. Included in the list—this time near the end but again without any special emphasis—is the Greek word translated in the New Revised Standard Version as “sodomites.” In both texts, such people are mentioned simply in passing, in more-or-less miscellaneous catalogs of unacceptable behaviors, but with no special emphasis or attention called to them.
Such miscellaneous lists of “vices” are fairly common not only in the New Testament and other early Christian literature but also in Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Jewish writings.3 They appear to have been somewhat stereotypical in nature, representing a kind of laundry list or grab bag of negative labels that could be trotted out and used for rhetorical purposes with little attention to individual items in the lists. As something of an analogy, I cite a passage from Arlo Guthrie’s famous ballad, “Alice’s Restaurant.” In speaking of his own arrest for littering and his assignment to “Group B” in the jail, Guthrie characterizes this group as follows:
Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by daaskapital
Originally posted by daaskapital
Some of us are just saying that it isn't as natural, or normal as the OP claims it is.
I get that. But let's take my situation... I'm female and unable to reproduce. That's not "natural" or "normal" either, right? But now many times do we see someone in a thread make a point of saying that? How many times have I heard people tell me, "You're not normal" or "Infertility is not natural"? How many times?
Not one. Never. Nada.
And yet people have no compunction about telling gay people that their situation is "not natural or normal"...
What is your point in making sure that everyone knows you think being gay is "unnatural" or "not normal" if not to criticize or feel "better" than them? Real question.
Would you feel compelled to tell me that I'm not "normal"? Then why do you feel compelled to tell a gay person that?
Personally, i have friends who are homosexual, and i couldn't care one way or another about the issue.