Gavin Scott wrote:I'm sorry to say that his attitude is prevalent amongst many from the small towns and Islands around Scotland. Shame, but true.
if religious leaders acknowledged and accepted homosexual activity as part of 'normal' human behavour, do you think this would have any effect? or do you think that such beliefs are almost hard-coded in people and the bible is used as merely an excuse to hold such views?
I cannot beleive ANYONE is hard-coded to discriminate against others. Those behaviours are learned where sexuality, converseley, is hard-coded for the most part, I beleive. From that perspective I beleive discrimination is a perversion, where being true to yourself is not.
I think the message in the bible has been squewed by translation and interpretation, and if I were religious myself I would have a hard time reconcilling the acceptance and non-judgement which Christianity is supposed to teach with the passages in the King James Bible which fly in the face of that.
Gavin Scott wrote:
s*xuality [is] hard-coded for the most part, I beleive.
i think this is the problem many people have. a lot of people i have heard speaking about s*xuality, especially, members of the church, seem to believe that homos*xuality is merely a lifestyle choice.
personally, i cannot accept this. i don't think homos*xuals have any more choice over their s*xuality than hetros*xuals do, in most cases.
it would be interesting to find out if there are any low-level differences in the brains of homos*xuals (i believe a study some years ago identified some differences in the hypothalamus, although i'm not sure as our filtering system will not let me search for this and verify it) , as this would prove beyond doubt this theory. i have read several papers on the so-called 'gay brain', but these are far from conclusive.
Its a bit long winded, but this I think is what you are referring to:
"Differences in the brains of gay sheep when compared to heterosexual sheep have been identified by researchers from the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in collaboration with the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho.
Researchers, hoping to expand on existing human studies that have found differences in the brains of heterosexual men, homosexual men and women, found the first evidence that the same differences exist in animals.
The sheep were selected for the study after more than two years of observation to determine their sexual orientation and mating habits. Of the 27 sheep chosen for the study, nine were males (or rams) that only mate with other males, eight were males that only mate with females and ten were female sheep or ewes.
When focusing on the preoptic hypothalamus, a part of the brain linked to sexual behaviors, researchers found significant differences between these three groups of sheep.
A group of neurons were also identified in that part of the brain called the sexually dimorphic nucleus.
"Interestingly, this bundle of neurons is smaller in ewes and in rams with same-sex preferences than it is in rams that prefer ewes," said Kay Larkin, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in physiology and pharmacology in the OHSU School of Medicine, and lead author of the paper. "We also determined that the volume of the sexually dimorphic area is approximately the same in rams that prefer rams as it is in ewes."
Other groups of neurons within the hypothalamus possibly linked to sexual behavior were also analyzed by researchers for size differences. These groups of neurons were shown to be different in male and female sheep, but not different in the two groups of rams.
"Future studies will address functional aspects of the observed differences in the hypothalamus and test the hypothesis that differences in brain anatomy and sexual partner preference arise as a consequence of hormone exposure during fetal development," said Charles Roselli, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology in the OHSU School of Medicine and senior author of the paper. "While we realize that sexuality is more complex in humans than reproductive behaviors in sheep, this model will help illuminate the basic principles that apply to all mammals, and may be helpful in understanding the biology of human behaviors as well."
Domestic rams were used in this study because of their variance in sexual orientation; Approximately six percent to eight percent of domestic rams are sexually exclusive with other rams, according to previous research estimates.
Findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Orlando, FL, on November 4, 2002. "
Gavin Scott wrote:I'm sorry to say that his attitude is prevalent amongst many from the small towns and Islands around Scotland. Shame, but true.
if religious leaders acknowledged and accepted homosexual activity as part of 'normal' human behavour, do you think this would have any effect? or do you think that such beliefs are almost hard-coded in people and the bible is used as merely an excuse to hold such views?
I cannot beleive ANYONE is hard-coded to discriminate against others. Those behaviours are learned where sexuality, converseley, is hard-coded for the most part, I beleive. From that perspective I beleive discrimination is a perversion, where being true to yourself is not.
I think the message in the bible has been squewed by translation and interpretation, and if I were religious myself I would have a hard time reconcilling the acceptance and non-judgement which Christianity is supposed to teach with the passages in the King James Bible which fly in the face of that.
It's rather a matter so selective quoting in the Bible.
The Old Testament indeed does condemn Homosexuality.
Indeed it says that if a man lies with a man they should be put to death
This is on the same page as
If a man commits adultery with a woman they shall both be put to death
and everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
So the Bible equates Homosexual relations with being rude to you Mum and Dad
nodnirG kraM wrote:LOL oh fair enough. Just out of interest does anyone know just when this ... hypothetical ... man and woman will be put to death? Is it like a month from adultery or will it just sneak up on you?
I suppose that depends on what you pick up from the woman.
