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Is Homosexuality Genetic?

Is Homosexuality Genetic?

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Listening to Dr. Dean on the radio a few nights ago, he made the assertion than almost all humans are bisexual to one degree or another. Rarely is it 50/50.

I also remember years ago hearing Dr. Ruth say that the most powerful sex organ is the brain.

This leads me to believe that if the brain is willing to allow physical sexual stimulus then the organs can and will respond.

We all learn to be sexually stimulated, whether we remember the lessons or not. Most of the lessons are provided by the culture we live in, so most end up heterosexual. The lessons can be negative or positive, but sexuality is definitely learned, mostly very haphazardly.

It has been long been argued that homosexuality is genetic, and therefore not a moral choice. I hope and believe that not to be the case, but if it were, and it could be detected, how many abortions might be performed by parents who would want to avoid homosexuality as much as Downes syndrome?

By the way, it is rather routine that adults change their "orientation" multiple times over a lifetime. This could not be the case if we were "hardwired" from birth.

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Originally posted by normbenign
Listening to Dr. Dean on the radio a few nights ago, he made the assertion than almost all humans are bisexual to one degree or another. Rarely is it 50/50.

I also remember years ago hearing Dr. Ruth say that the most powerful sex organ is the brain.

This leads me to believe that if the brain is willing to allow physical sexual stimulus then the o ...[text shortened]... ltiple times over a lifetime. This could not be the case if we were "hardwired" from birth.
The very same arguments could be applied to monogamy. But we embrace monogamy because its learned behavior? Or because those who order society think its best for us?

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Originally posted by normbenign
How many abortions might be performed by parents who would want to avoid homosexuality as much as Downes syndrome?
Sounds like you might have been roped into a Pat Robinson For President focus group at some point and one of the questions is still pinging around inside your head.

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Originally posted by FMF
Then on what basis are you saying that homosexuality is an abomination and is completely unacceptable to "God"?

Homesexuals are unacceptable to "God". And yet Jesus teaches you to love them. I thought Christians were monotheists.
We are monotheists. Jesus was God in human form, but as God is omniscient, He is also the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit...all in one. Isn't great that God is more powerful than a non-God? Homosexuality is an abomination to God, but Christians are taught to love homos anyway; they are human-love the sinner, and hate the sin. God made man and woman, not man and man or woman and woman..this would be biologically unacceptable.

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Originally posted by spruce112358

In society, it is probably an adverse mutation because it tends to interfere with reproductive success.
This isn't exactly true.
In the book "Sperm wars", the writer makes the case that homosexuality actually increases the success rate of reproduction.

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Originally posted by shavixmir
"Sperm wars"
What book is that? 😲

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Originally posted by Seitse
What book is that? 😲
It's a book about human nature, why men behave in certain fashions and why women behave in other fashions.

It's very interesting stuff.

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Originally posted by shavixmir
It's a book about human nature, why men behave in certain fashions and why women behave in other fashions.

It's very interesting stuff.
Sounds interesting. Have you read Esther Vilar's The Manipulated Man?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manipulated-Man-Esther-Vilar/dp/1905177178/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231148660&sr=1-1

My personal recommendation for you. Hey, I would even give my copy to you! A true jewel.

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Originally posted by Seitse
A true jewel.
You may have inadvertently politicized him against the message of your book.

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Originally posted by shavixmir
This isn't exactly true.
In the book "Sperm wars", the writer makes the case that homosexuality actually increases the success rate of reproduction.
How does the argument go? I don't know the book.

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Originally posted by kmax87
The very same arguments could be applied to monogamy. But we embrace monogamy because its learned behavior? Or because those who order society think its best for us?
Years ago, there was an argument that humans are somewhat polygamous.

It was based on a correlation between sexual dimorphism (i.e. males being physically larger than females) and polygamy in animal species. Where males and females are the same size (gibbons, many birds), the species tends to be monogamous. In species where the males are bigger (most mammals), polygamy predominates.

Since human males tend to be larger than females, that argues for a polygamous evolutionary history.

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Originally posted by shavixmir
This isn't exactly true.
In the book "Sperm wars", the writer makes the case that homosexuality actually increases the success rate of reproduction.
If you permit, I formed a theory about what sorts of mutation might give rise to homosexuality.

First of all, the number of couples with fertility problems is huge -- I think around 10%, which is a huge fraction.

Second, we know that most humans "experiment" with their own gender when they are young ("You show me yours, I'll show you mine"😉 -- often at a stage when boys and girls detest each other. Which is good, right? It seems to be important that kids not to start opposite-sex stuff before getting a reasonable level of maturity.

However, that means that a switchover is needed -- from hating the opposite gender to loving it. It must be a complicated neurological pathway with a lot of interelated parts -- any one of which can develop a mutation.

So if you consider that accomplishing the general problem of sexual reproduction between couples has only a 90% success rate, it is not hard to imagine a similar failure rate in the "orientation switchover" which -- if it did not happen -- would potentially leave an individual in an ambiguous or gay orientation.

So this could be part of the price we pay for sexual reproduction, which nevertheless has overwhelming advantages even with such a high failure rate.

Then reason homosexuality wouldn't die out, then, would be spontaneous mutations with each generation in a very complicated sexual orientation pathway. So this would also then explain "degrees" of homosexuality based on how complete the blocakge of a pathway is, etc.

Just a thought.

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A common theory is that the gene that codes for homosexuality in men increases fertility in women, which would give evolutionary sense to male homosexuality.