@JyePhye said:
- There are many mental conditions which, once "turned on", can never go away. Among these are schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder; only the symptoms of these conditions can be treated. So if homosexuality were to be an irreversible condition, it would not be the only one as such... however homosexuality does not fall under the same classification as these conditions, nor any other irreversible condition. Homosexuality isn't even really classified as a condition, but as I explained earlier, rather as a type of behavior amongst the whole spectrum of human sexual behavior. One can engage in homosexual behavior during a certain period in their life, and then switch to heterosexual behavior, and vice versa. As an example, there are plenty of persons who experiment sexually throughout high-school and even more commonly during college, but who after having engaged in various homosexual behaviors end up turning exclusively to heterosexual behaviors for the rest of their lives. Hence sexuality as a spectrum, along which any individual may travel during the course of their life.
I tried to generalize it but, you've made a good point about people with dynamic sexual traits. Those are mostly people who engage in promiscuous behavior and mostly they occupy the category of biggest vectors of AIDs and other STDs. The homosexuals that I was talking about, were those people who tend to be homosexual since a very early age. Like, most of the homosexuals or permanent homosexuals that we see are those who become homosexuals right from the start of their puberty. Those homosexuals are the ones who find it difficult or impossible to switch their sexuality. On a basic level, we can say that they go through 'continuous variation'. The genes that determine their sexuality almost become exclusive to homosexuality. It's just like, they never felt what it is to be a heterosexual. So they're always reluctant. The people who change their sexuality due to 'reasons' that might as well be sexual frustrations or such are not a threat but I would consider them immoral nonetheless.
@JyePhye said:
- Homosexuality frequently occurs in nature, and is therefore as reasonably "natural" as any other aspect of sexuality in any animal known to science. Let's please put a rest to that argument, because the debate over "natural or unnatural" has at this point descended into mere semantics.
Yeah, it's just fallen down onto the differing definitions of 'natural' anyway so might as well give it a rest..
@JyePhye said:
- Societies where homosexuality is not discussed or is outright suppressed as a topic of discussion are societies where greater levels of sexual repression (and psychological issues arising from that repression) occur, because these same societies choose to suppress discussion of sexuality in general. A lower quality of life ensues.
The solution to problems with Western sexual culture is drastically improved sex education. That simple. It is statistically proven that higher rates of sex education lead to fewer cases of STD transmission and fewer cases of unwanted pregnancy. Do away with abstinence only programs and teach developing adults about the realities and dangers of sex. Problem (mostly) solved.
A difference in culture doesn't mean much when discussing scientific and statistical facts. Just because there's a general sentiment in Eastern culture doesn't mean it's factually true. What is factually true is that repression of homosexuality in many Eastern cultures produces issues not only of individual sexual repression, but also of oftentimes flagrant human rights abuses. Homosexuals in much of the Eastern world are regarded as second class citizens who can, in many instances, be put to death or imprisoned for homosexual acts. If anyone is in the right from a basic ethical standpoint on this issue, I hate to say it, but it's the West.
Let's just sum it up in one reply. I wouldn't call one sexual culture 'better' than the other. If anything, both cultures are a big failure in my eyes. Better sex education might 'improve' the numbers of STD patients and other oddities relating to sex. But, the most fundamental aspect of a sexual relation; that is love, would still be absent. In Western culture, the liberal attitude tends to make sex a casual interaction on a societal level. Thus, there's very little intimacy involved in their relations resulting in most relations becoming a failure or not as well as they were supposed to be. Yes it is certainly true that 'love' majorly depends on the individual, but the culture or the system has a significant impact as well.
In Eastern culture, the element of love is just on the same level as Western culture. Partly due to the sexual repression that they have to go through to abide by their culture, and partly due to the mentality of the people here, where in some societies, men really do consider them 'superiors' of women. Thus, the relation of a husband and wife is more like that of a slave and master rather true partners. Ultimately, the lack of sex education plays it's role in making conditions even worse.
To sum it up, no culture provides enough to fulfill the most basic need of a relationship. In Western culture, people turn homosexual because of the promiscuous behavior and in Eastern culture, people become homosexual due to sexual frustrations. The law quality of life can not be contributed to the oppression of homosexuality. It relates to the mere fact that I've stated above; sexual frustration combined with little to no sex education.
The Eastern culture treats homosexuals as second class citizen because in most Eastern societies, religion is the major part of law. But Easterners are a failure in a sense that whereas their religion opposes homosexuality, it (or most Eastern religions at least, mainly Islam) also provides a counter for that. But when it comes to that, they completely ignore that. Thus making them a society which is more archaic than even the dark ages.
Ultimately, both the systems are a failure. This is a whole another topic and I'd like make another thread about it sometime as it could spark some really interesting discussions.
@JyePhye said:
- World population levels are, for lack of a better term, skyrocketing. It is almost statistically impossible, barring some major worldwide catastrophe like plague, mass famine or nuclear war, that population growth could ever stagnate over the next half-century. Beyond that point, threats of drought and food shortage are likely to be real concerns; not population stagnation due to some homosexuality boom. Likewise, it is statistically inconceivable that homosexuality could overtake heterosexuality as the sexuality norm within the next century, beyond which point sexual reproduction as we know it might become irrelevant anyway due to sufficient scientific advances. But even if we were to imagine your proposed scenario where homosexuals become the majority, a serious threat of population halting is unlikely due to artificial insemination. In case you haven't noticed, there are tons of homosexual couples who are becoming parents by way of this miraculous technology!
Aside from your purely speculative argument about a homosexuality boom hurting population growth, you have presented no argument indicative of any other harmful effect of homosexuals on society; because the idea of homosexuality as contagious is likewise unfounded, with you having no statistical or scientific evidence to prove that homosexuality is contagious in any way at all.
My lack of evidence on this matter can mainly be contributed to the fact that there have been zero societies in the past where homosexuals were in the majority. Sure, even in the past, there have been societies where homosexuals were accepted like the Roman society in their prime, and Greek people and some other. But even in those societies, due to religion, people had this kind of mentality "It's ok to live with them but just don't become like them". And because of that, homosexuals didn't grow if not then at a very minute scale. But in this modern world, where homosexuals are protected by laws and there's very little religious interference involved on this subject especially in the West. I wouldn't be surprised if I see a substantial growth of homosexuals in the West. The population was all a prospect to begin with. But artificial insemination taking place of natural reproduction? needless to say, that would creep the **** out of me. But that still would be a far fetched approach for developing countries. Plus, the myths surrounding them in backward areas won't let it go that easily.
Anyways, if homosexuality really does take the place of majority. I don't think that humans will remain as efficient. Just imagine that a bunch of construction workers working at a construction site, majority of them being homosexuals. Well, that would be disastrous. Also, in jails and many other places, homosexuality might become the new sexual harassment method or bullying and stuff. Homosexuals being in the minority has what saved us from all that up until now, but if they become the majority in the far future, everything will become clear. Right now, we can only speculate.
@JyePhye said:
- You are completely off base on the masturbation thing. Scientific research has shown that masturbating at least once a week actually helps reduce symptoms of depression, as a by-product of health benefits from masturbation, and directly through the release of endorphins during masturbation.
- Sexual exploration is an inherent biological impulse of children, adolescents, and adults. Psychology tells us that parents who strongly limit these impulses, outside of limitations for safety reasons, can actually cause children psychological harm and halt psychological development (e.g. constantly telling a child not to touch themselves is linked to issues with personal insecurity into adulthood).
I was mainly targeting the chronic masturbation here. In this age, where physical maturity occurs at the age of 12 or 13 (due to better nutrition etc) and mental maturity happens around 16 to 18 depending on the person. This gap in between is the reason why teenagers are to be abstained from sex till the age of 18. In this gap, we already know that hormone burst is at its peak and the sexual urges of a human being are at it's highest. Masturbation provides a good outlet for all the sexual frustration gathering up.
The real problem arises when the age of 18+ strikes and the individual still didn't have any sexual interaction with anyone. Then, masturbation becomes more of an addiction than a habit. And this is the stage where people are more susceptible to depression and other psychological abnormalities. I don't think I need to explain it any further.
I never denied sexual exploration. The only thing that I intimidated, was that in Western cultures, children from a very early age, open to all kinds of sexual activities. This tends to have a negative impact on their mind. The age of sexual exploration is when the child reaches the age of puberty. In most Eastern religions (notice how I didn't say 'culture'), people are advised to marry as soon as puberty strikes. In old times it was possible but due to the slow mental growth these days and many other factors, it is rather difficult. But in my religion, there's another way out of it but that's a different subject. Therefore, in Eastern 'cultures', this insecurity is present. It's again a different subject but I reiterate, both cultures are failures. With neither being better than the other.
@JyePhye said:
- Technically, homosexuality in an individual does affect the genes, just as the choice to smoke or constantly ride a dirt bike affects the genes. This is a very complicated scientific concept that would take a really long time to get into here, so I'll just suggest you look up epigenetics if you want to learn more about what I'm referring to. Needless to say, everything we do affects our genes.
It certainly does. Again on a basic level, it's continuous variation. But I forgot where I said that genes never change....
@JyePhye said:
- There is no factually based or safety relevant issue for suppressing homosexuality. The only arguments against homosexuality are those based purely in opinion, with no support from scientific, statistical, or factual evidence of any kind. Proponents of any kind of suppression of homosexuality need to own up to this inevitable conclusion and stop trying to purport their arguments as anything other than mere conjecture.
That is again a matter of opinion. By my definition of 'natural', homosexuals aren't natural. And again by my morals , they are immoral as I stated above in an example about construction workers and stuff. Even now, science could neither prove it nor disprove it. It's just like the existence of God subject which is sprawling with bias because of people believing in different things. But let just put this aside and discuss what we're already discussing.
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