Off-Topic: Elton John today

[jaycee]

Originally Posted by carrie721

i am not a religious person or a biblical scholar by any means. however, i was raised christian and devoted a lot of time and energy when i was younger to trying to reconcile the beliefs i was taught with the knowledge that i was gay. in the end, i couldn't, but that is neither here nor there.

what i don't understand is why so many christians get hung up on homosexuality. there are countless sins that people commit every day, but it seems overall that christians are inordinately concerned about homosexuality and some go so far as to spread lies and demonize us in order to strip us of basic human dignity.

i understand the biblical argument is that sex should be procreative and therefore acting on homosexual urges is wrong. however, i have seen firsthand the psychic damage that is caused when gay people lead straight lives, and that damage has a ripple effect. the struggle to deny something as fundamental as your sexuality is unimaginable.

honestly, i don't mind being told i'm going to hell because i don't believe in an afterlife. i mind more when people try to lead me to christ (or any religion) because the implication is that my life is less meaningful because i don't belong to a religion.

i think the human need for transcendence is a universal one. i don't think i'm better or smarter than anybody just because i'm not a christian. i am still awed and humbled by the beauty of the natural world, the kindness of others, the scope of our universe; even though i don't see the hand of god in any of it. but i don't feel the need to talk anyone out of being a christian, muslim, jew, etc. so it bugs me when someone tries to talk me into being one.

you know i like you and i am not talking about you in particular with any of this. i just wanted to explain how things look from the other side.



nikolaj, i do this all the time, quoting just the parts of someone else's post that are pertinent to my response. i have seen many others do it too. the intent is rarely if ever to passive aggressively denounce what was omitted. i don't even think iamnotafraid was trying to debate your point.



really? how come? i'm not challenging you, i'm just always interested in what people think is the root of homosexuality.

I'm already back! It's just because the ever-insightful carrie721 posted.
I find the universe all the more remarkable at the thought that it's all a natural process! It seems more remarkable than thinking it was all created with a bit of magic, at least to me anyway...
(In case you want to know, I personally think the universe is a physical manifestation of an underlying piece of grand mathematics. Of course, I study particle physics, so in a way that shouldn't surprise anyone. Also, my philosophy of mathematics is Platonic. The best evidence I can think of to justify that philosophy is the magic of complex numbers, which, by the simple positing of i^2 = -1, reveals a whole lot of unexpected relationships, particularly e^ix = cosx + isinx. )
As for the roots of homosexuality, it's best described as a type of biological "misfire". As far as I can tell, this "misfire" and that of fetishes are related (i.e. the origins should be related, even though the desires can easily be independent). I myself have a latex fetish. (And, no, I'm not into forms of dom/sub, or much of anything beyond wearing latex. I'm rather boring in that way! )
Ultimately these issues all come down to genes, although sometimes (perhaps with this instance, for example) that can be as helpful as saying that we're made of fundamental particles - certainly, that's where the answer lies, but it does nothing to help our brains understand the problem!