Homosexuality

I found a series of essays online about Judeo-Christian beliefs about homosexuality, quoting the text, and offering both conservative and liberal interpretations.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibl.htm
Because it does more than simply quote text, but offer interpretations, then it becomes more interesting. Because that's the kicker, isn't it? Old religious texts may be interpreted in different ways. There is no one right or wrong answer, it's all shades of grey.

The website is from the Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance. So it's a good source; it should strike the balance between not-offending-the-religious and not-offending-the-gays.
_________________
It was the year of fire… the year of destruction… the year we took back what was ours.
It was the year of rebirth… the year of great sadness… the year of pain… and the year of joy.
It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed.
The year is 2261.
The place: Babylon 5.

I understand that it's your interpretation, but I thought we could go beyond "this is what I believe, this is what you believe". If you don't want to that's fine.

EUC Staff Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 1204 Location: Nirn

I do think life is pointless without God, yes. If I didn't believe in God, I don't know how I could live with myself. However, that wasn't really what I was trying to say in my post. I was just showing how Ecclesiastes is a fundamentalist's nightmare. This is starting to get really off topic, so if you really want to discuss life having meaning without God, we should probably move to the Faith thread.

I see what you're saying. This isn't something that I can give any definitive answer on, because when you don't take a fundamentalist stance on the Bible, the question of what is "God speaking" and what isn't is raised. How can you tell what is literal and what is figurative? I'll do my best.

Taral, I browsed on the site you linked and a lot of red flags were coming up.

First of all, the look of the site. It looks very thrown together and unprofessional. Of course, this doesn't mean the information is bad, but it immediately sets my Spidey sense off. My Media Arts teacher taught me as much.

Secondly, the lack of links is really concerning. There will be an interesting bit of information, but it was apparently pulled out of thin air.

I decided to test one bit of information on mystudybible.com (a website that, among other things, translates verses into the original Greek and Hebrew and definitley a site I trust) and the information turned out to be false. I still remember the verse if you want to know it.

I'm having trouble trusting it.
_________________

Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Well, this talk about the word of God in the bible is part of the reason why I stopped being Christian. Anyhoo:

There was a point I wanted to bring up earlier, but the thread seemed to have ended, so I didn't. Now it's alive, I can! Concerning the etymology of homophobia and homosexuality. Homosexuality actually means 'same sex', not 'man sex' (as the homo in this word is derivative of the Greek, not the Latin word). So homophobia doesn't actually literally mean 'fear of man', but 'fear of same sex relations'.

However, homophobia was first used in reference to a man's fear of being thought of as gay by his peers, rather than being fearful of gay people, themselves. Though, of course, over time, its meaning has evolved.

Now, where do I stand on same sex? Well, in the words of the comedian Frankie Boyle:

Sorry for the double post, but I wanted to keep this issue separate.

Regarding being gay 'being born that way vs. choosing to be so'. After doing some research, I've determined that it is not a choice, consciously or unconsciously. Also, it is not genetic (as is often thought of when one says 'people are born that way'), but rather a matter of hormonal development. This development, I theorise, starts during the phoetal stage of development and continues up until the age of 5, give or take.
_________________
I am a Star Wars fan. That doesn't mean that I hate or love Jar Jar. That doesn't mean I hate or love Lucas, or agree or disagree 100% with him. That doesn't mean I prefer the PT over the OT, or vice versa. That doesn't mean I hate the EU, or even love all of it. These are not prerequisites. Being a man is not a prerequisite. Being a geek is not a prerequisite. The only prerequisite is that I love something about Star Wars. I am a Star Wars fan.

EUC Staff Joined: 09 Nov 2011 Posts: 1204 Location: Nirn

As I said before, I can't imagine it being a choice (apart from people who want other people to think they're gay, for attention (Little Britain, anyone?)). If anything, there are probably more gay people pretending to be straight, because of bullying, fear of prejudice etc.

One of my friends had a ridiculous argument, saying that "if gay marriage was allowed, and a gay man/woman put married on a CV or whatever, how would the employer know whether they're gay or not?". They wouldn't, and it doesn't matter, employers shouldn't make decisions like that depending on orientation.

I wasn't even aware people put marriage status on CV's.
_________________
There's always a bigger fish - Qui Gon Jinn.

You shall learn that history is an intricate weaving of many events. No one thing can be understood without the proper context.

The best techniques are passed on by the survivors.

Oh, I don't believe it's a choice either. I've gotten to know two gay people over the course of my short life and my experience with them has me convinced of that. I don't doubt there are some people who have chosen it though, but I imagine they would be the exception to the rule.

Basically, here's how I feel about it:

I believe that same sex marriage is wrong. My reasons for thinking so are religious and philosophical, therefore I don't expect others to share my view (as I would, say, for murder) nor do I expect the law to reflect this. The law should be concerned with maintaining a free and safe society, not making our choices for us. There are many things that are legal (and should stay legal) that I, and sometimes the vast majority of humanity, think are wrong.

As for being "born with it", I don't see how this changes anything. I was "born" with the tendancy to be arrogant. It's just what I have to deal with. Again this is a religious and philosophical thing, so I don't expect everyone to agree with it. I beleive that the world has fallen (I think I would believe this even if I had never heard of Christianity) from what it was meant to be and that would explain why we're born with these things.

And, of course, I should act around homosexuals the way I would act around anyone else. Judging them is not my place.

It's important to stress that homosexuality isn't (so far as we can tell) genetic for a fuller understanding of it. I've heard an interesting theory on why people become homosexual (I can't remember where). The scientist who was writing theorized that children go through stages in which they are "attracted" to males and females. Eventually (at the end of puberty, I think) they are attracted to the opposite sex. However, if the child suffers a certain type of psychological stress or trauma, they can exit the "back and forth" stage before they're ready and become attracted to the same sex. I'm not sure I completely buy into it yet, but it seems to make sense when I recall my childhood. One of the gay people I have known (the other never told me of his childhood), had a rough childhood, especially with her father.
_________________

Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

I object to the idea that gay people are the result of something breaking during development. I don't think that's ever been conclusively shown, and it adds to the problem of people thinking homosexuality is a disease to be cured.

To quote Magneto, "I say WE are the cure!" A great quote (which can either apply to homosexuals directly, or to people like me who support positive integration thereof), especially since it was uttered by a gay actor, in a movie/comic franchise that is, among other things, an allegory for homophobia.
_________________
It was the year of fire… the year of destruction… the year we took back what was ours.
It was the year of rebirth… the year of great sadness… the year of pain… and the year of joy.
It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed.
The year is 2261.
The place: Babylon 5.

Master Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 4400 Location: Korriban

Page 3 of 14		All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 12, 13, 14 Next