Top Ten Gay Animals

[solidsquid]

Found this interesting:

www.livescience.com/bestimg/index.php?url=&cat=gayanimals

[dan]

Whether or not you intended to bring this out in your post, the implication from this article is that because there are some animals that are homosexual, that means homosexuality is natural, contradicting the Biblical statements that it is a sin.

But you must also note that some animals kill and eat their own kind; thus, using the same reasoning, you might conclude that cannibalistic murder is morally okay for humans to do! Clearly this is absurd.

In the same way, the fact that animals practice homosexuality does not prove anything about whether or not it is morally right or even "natural" for humans.

[snafui]

So a natural behavior, a preference, put upon a human being by your so called God is a sin then?

Homosexuals do not choose to be homosexual any more than they can choose to like their favorite food. You don't choose to like a banana (as the argument goes) you just do.

[dan]

snafui said:

So a natural behavior, a preference, put upon a human being by your so called God is a sin then?

My whole point was that just because something is practiced in the animal world, and hence could be considered "natural", does not mean that the practice is morally right. For instance, we see murder and cannibalism in the animal world, but we know that that is morally wrong for humans to do. In the same way, the fact that some animals practice homosexuality does not mean that it is right.

Homosexuals do not choose to be homosexual any more than they can choose to like their favorite food. You don't choose to like a banana (as the argument goes) you just do.

They may not choose to have homosexual feelings, but they can choose what they do with those feelings. It would be as if I was attracted to another man's wife; I may not have directly chosen that desire, but I can decide whether or not to act on that desire, and to act on it would be sin.

[solidsquid]

dan said:

In the same way, the fact that animals practice homosexuality does not prove anything about whether or not it is morally right or even "natural" for humans.

I never said it did, you did.

[Dragon*of*Heaven]

In the animal world, yes there are animals that are cannibalistic. The question then is why are they so. In most of these cases you will find that they are cannibalistic because of one of two reasons. First is that there is no other food source in the facility and there for it is to keep alive and survive. Second is that it is a natural reaction by that animal to stave off the amount of competition and limit the natural predatory percentage. These are the two basic reasons for cannibalism.

Now as a human, the first reason is a tested one and has been found to be upheld by a humans natural reaction to a situation of survival (such as a mountain cave in winter with no one to help you.) As to morality on this subject, I actually do not think it is right to judge a person in this situation as being an immoral person. If you have not been in the situation you cannot understand the parameters of the situation and frankly you do not know what you would have done in the same place.

As for reason number two, there is generally enough space for a human to move in that they do not have to do this, and in reality there is not enough of a precedent for humanity to speak on this as being an equatable point (murder is not cannibalism by the by)

As for murder we do this all the time, but we find it to be objectionable. This however is not based really in morality, but in the fact that it is not reasonable (Tit for Tat).

Now then onto Homosexuality as being morally objectionable. To be quite frank I do not know how you got to this assertion. If you look at the Homosexual population you cant say they are evil, per capita they have a much lower crime rate than Heterosexuals. As for it being unnatural. Well not only can I state that there is a precedent for Homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom, but i can also state and have evidence for the fact that you and I as humans do a grand number of things that cannot be viewed as being natural. For instance flight is not natural for a human being, nor is diving down a few miles in a submarine. Yet we do both of these things. I would like to know is under what basis you are supposing that it is indeed in violation of morality?