The Gaytheist Agenda

I wrote previously about a recent study that found differences between the brains of straight and gay individuals. There’s a Slate piece on the same study that goes beyond the Time article I quoted.

So, what’s the common factor? If the study’s design rules out learned influences, and if the results in women rule out genetics, that leaves what the authors call “hormonal influences” or noncognitive differences in the infant environment. According to the Guardian, the same research team has “begun another study to investigate brain symmetry in newborn babies, to see if it can be used to predict their future sexual orientation.” If it can, that will scratch postnatal factors off the list, and the search will narrow to hormones in the womb. Already, the authors point to evidence that homosexuality may be caused by “under-exposure to prenatal androgens” in males and “over-exposure” in females.

There’s the “more research” I was hoping for. It would be wonderful if we could determine whether the brain differences are present at birth or if they form later in life.

But here comes the part that broaches the concern many LGBT people have even in their quest for proof that being gay is innate; the fact that our opponents will do all they can to eradicate it medically, even if it means doing so in the womb. They continue to see us as a flaw, a defect, and still wish to wipe us out at any cost.

…..
Would hormonal intervention work in humans? Should we try it? Some thinkers are intrigued. Last year, the Rev. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote: “If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use.” Mohler told the Associated Press that morally, this would be no different from curing fetal blindness or any other “medical problem.” The Rev. Joseph Fessio, editor of the press that publishes the pope’s work, agreed: “Same-sex activity is considered disordered. If there are ways of detecting diseases or disorders of children in the womb … that respected the dignity of the child and mother, it would be a wonderful advancement of science.”

If the idea of chemically suppressing homosexuality in the womb horrifies you, I have bad news: You won’t be in the room when it happens. Parents control medical decisions, and surveys indicate that the vast majority of them would be upset to learn that their child was gay. Already, millions are screening embryos and fetuses to eliminate those of the “wrong” sex. Do you think they won’t screen for the “wrong” sexual orientation, too?

Liberals are slow to see what’s coming. They’re still fighting the culture war. The Toronto Star, like other papers, finds a neuroscientist who thinks the new study “should erode the moral judgments often made against homosexual preferences and rebut any argument that it is a mere a lifestyle choice.” Well, yes. But then what? The reduction of homosexuality to neurobiology doesn’t mean your sexual orientation can’t be controlled. It just means the person controlling it won’t be you.

…..

I’ve seen it coming for some time now. What, with the “ex-gay” movement’s ferocity I knew in a heartbeat that if a biological cause were found for homosexuality the first thing the RRRW would do would be to work on a scientific “cure” for it. If they embraced science for one reason only it would be to rid the world of gay people. I daresay some of them, the most extreme ones, might even give up their anti-abortion stance if it was predicted a fetus was to be born gay. Radical thoughts, yes, but after what I’ve heard and read from some of the more virulent anti-gay contingent I don’t think I’m that far off base.

 


 
Addendum. A comment has arrived. Ebon said:

This stuff always pisses me off. if there’s one reason above all others that I hate the Religious Reich, it’s the perversion of science. If we do find a biological basis for homosexuality and if that biological basis can be manipulated (lot of “if”s there), it still doesn’t mean that we should do it.

All the things that could be done with that kind of technology and they’re fixated on eliminating something that doesn’t even cause any harm? WTF? All the applications research like that could have and the idiots are fixated on narrowing the wondrous variety of humanity down to a dull little box of vanilla. How limited, how insulting, how small a world.

Indeed. It just proves once again that they don’t, as they say, “love the sinner but hate the sin”. They truly hate gay people, for why else would they seek to completely eradicate us by any means possible? (If the language and propaganda they use to demonize us wasn’t enough to convince skeptics this certainly should.)

I can’t help but wonder why I’m always reminded of the eugenics movement when it comes to these people…

 

Kevin said:

Long ago when arguing with some fundie that people were born gay or straight he cameback and said that violent criminals are said to be born that way, does that mean society should let them rampage and hurt whoever they want?

That’s when I realized it just doesn’t matter if science finds an answer to this, politically and socially people have a right to be gay no matter where it came from.

And I agree that those so inflamed over gayness will stop at nothing to stop it if they can, including manipulating the fetus in the womb or even abortion of a gay fetus though they find abortion abhorrent.

Over the years I’ve found there is no logic with these people, just pure, raw emotion, and they can find a way to justify any kind of action. Lying for Jesus is a noble thing to them.

If I had a dollar for every time homosexuality had been compared to murder, rape, theft and the like I’d be rich. Filthy rich. I’m disgusted the way we get likened to literal criminals who commit harmful acts against others, but then look who’s doing the comparisons. It’s not as if they’re a font of compassion or integrity. Then after they spew lies about us they turn around and plot to harm us. Par for the course, really.

The Radical Realist said:

I f***ing love the hypocrisy of that baptist fool. Despite the horror of the possibility of eliminating gay people via the womb, I’m practically rolling on the floor laughing at the hypocrisy. According to his twisted logic, it’s not okay to f*** with god’s will when a poor meth head with 4 kids becomes pregnant with another one, or when a person has been a vegetable for 12 years; yet it is okay to f*** with his will to eradicate homosexuals when it satisfies your irrational fear and hatred of gays. Nice.

Pure comedy.

All life is sacred from the moment of conception, don’t you know, unless that life is L,G,B or T. Then it needs to be “fixed”. Paging Dr. Mengele.

 

Are people gay by choice or by birth? That’s the question that keeps being asked, and one that is at the heart of the fight for LGBT rights. LGBT advocates tend to believe either that being gay is inherent or that it doesn’t matter while detractors insist it is a choice. A new study provides more evidence that being gay may very well be biological.

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Scientists at the Karolinska Institute studied brain scans of 90 gay and straight men and women, and found that the size of the two symmetrical halves of the brains of gay men more closely resembled those of straight women than they did straight men. In heterosexual women, the two halves of the brain are more or less the same size. In heterosexual men, the right hemisphere is slightly larger. Scans of the brains of gay men in the study, however, showed that their hemispheres were relatively symmetrical, like those of straight women, while the brains of homosexual women were asymmetrical like those of straight men. The number of nerves connecting the two sides of the brains of gay men were also more like the number in heterosexual women than in straight men.

Just what these brain differences mean is still not clear. Ever since 1991, when Simon LeVay first documented differences in the hypothalamus of gay and straight men, researchers have been struggling to understand what causes these differences to occur. Until now, the brain regions that scientists have come to believe play a role in sexual orientation have been related to either reproduction or sexuality. The Swedish study, however, is the first to find differences in parts of the brain not normally involved in reproduction — the denser network of nerve connections, for example, was found in the amygdala, known as the emotional center of the brain. “The big question has always been, if the brains of gay men are different, or feminized, as earlier research suggests,” says Dr. Eric Vilain, professor of human genetics at University of California Los Angeles, “then is it just limited to sexual preference or are there other regions that are gender atypical in gay males? For the first time, in this study it looks like there are regions of the brain not directly involved in sexuality that seem to be feminized in gay males.”
…..

Very intriguing. Granted it was a small sample size, but it’s a perfect springboard for more research of this nature. I’d love to see a study like this expanded, and of course I look forward to others of its nature.

 

Sam Harris is preparing to run another fMRI study of belief and disbelief and he is asking for volunteers to complete surveys to help refine experimental stimuli. There are four different surveys and it’s best if you can take them all. If you can’t please choose a random survey so there isn’t a dearth of responses to the first and too few to the last. Please note that each survey begins with the same first page of questions. Thank you for your help!

 
Belief Survey A

Belief Survey B

Belief Survey C

Belief Survey D

 

Of course even though the article is aimed at gay men, there’s no reason the rest of us can’t go green. Every little bit helps, and the more people who go green the better off the environment is.

1. I recycle.
I used to dread recycling, only dropping items into the blue bins because it was required by law. Then I saw an ad on the subway that said New Yorkers throw away enough paper waste every year to fill the Empire State Building. I asked myself how much effort it would actually take to drop my paper, plastic and metal products in a separate bin instead of the trash can? It’s turning out to be little effort at all. I keep a recycle bin right next to the trash bin in my apartment, which makes it easy to just tie and drop the separated trash and recyclables on the curb on trash day. It’s become routine for me to check the bottom of bottles and cans for their recyclability.

Here are some interesting facts:

*Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours — or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
*An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now.
*There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminum can can be recycled.
*To produce each week’s Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.
*If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year.
*If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
*The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. *This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year.
*The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
*Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.
*Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution.
*The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.
*Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away.
*Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.
*Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour.
*Every month, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable.
*The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.
*A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose — and even longer if it’s in the landfill.
*Mining and transporting raw materials for glass produces about 385 pounds of waste for every ton of glass that is made. If recycled glass is substituted for half of the raw materials, the waste is cut by more than 80%.

2. I opt for electronic billing.
Checking the mailbox can be such a downer, especially when it’s filled with the cable bill, the cell bill, the gas bill, and ever other bill imaginable. After clogging up my box, these paper-wasters often end up in the recycle bin or trash once I pay them. Most billing companies, however, offer electronic billing options. Regular statements sent via email or text message alert me of specific bill due dates and amounts. I immediately log the information into my calendar and then schedule my online bill payments.

3. I use online bill pay.

I write—maybe—a handful of checks a year. I use my check card to pay for purchases whenever possible (which is easy to do now that most retailers are bank card focused). I’ve also set up online bill payment at my bank to pay monthly bills. This saves paper, envelopes and stamps. The only draw back is that in some cases the bank actually sends a paper check instead of me (which defeats my green purpose), but in most instances the bank is able to transfer funds electronically, saving a few trees.

The benefits to the environment are enough motivation to make the switch. But consider this; once I switched to paperless billing and online payments I also began saving myself a great deal of time and money. I no longer have to open, file and eventually shred/recycle my monthly statements. I also don’t have to fuss with checks, stamps and traditional mail. I get my statements via e-mail and after a few minutes at my bank’s online site my bills are paid.

5. I energy star.
I look for the “star,” as they say, on any home appliance that I purchase. This lets me know that they meet energy efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. EPA and U.S. Department of Energy, using less energy. Learn more on the Energy Star Program website.

Remember to unplug any appliances that have “standby mode” when you’re not using them–particularly if you don’t use them frequently.

9. I use my own bags.
Single or double bag, sir? I’m sure you recognize this standard inquiry from grocery store cashiers everywhere. I take pride in my response: “Neither, I have my own.” I keep a few re-usable bags on me at all times just in case I drop by the grocery store or any other outlet. The double and triple plastic and paper bags add up to a lot of waste. By using (and re-using) my own bags, I save landfill space and I feel good about making a difference.

If you end up getting paper or plastic from the store for some reason, re-use the bags for trash, recycling or some other useful purpose. Don’t let them end up as mere trash in a landfill.

10. I use natural cleaning products.
Tough dirt, germs and grime call for tough cleaning products. The only problem is that those potent chemicals wash down the drain along with the dirt. These chemicals then swirl into our water supply. One remedy is to raid your cupboard for natural cleaning solutions like vinegar, lemon juice and baking soda (learn more), or you can buy natural versions of over-the-counter supplies, like I do. Many commercial brands, like Clorox, now make natural surface and bathroom cleaning products that pack a punch on germs, but ease up on our environment.

For more helpful hints on living green , fair trade and much more Co-Op America is a great resource. Their Getting to Zero Waste might be of particular interest to those wishing to reduce, reuse and recycle.

 

Do you guys have seperate trash pick-ups there? Here (Britain), every house has three trash bins; one blue (glass, picked up Tuesdays), one green (card, paper, etc, Wednesday) and one grey (everything else, Thursday). Seems to work most of the time.

That said, I order groceries online (saves driving) and even they turn up in plastic bags! I could just carry the crate through to my kitchen but noooo. Still, the bags aren’t wasted, they’re used to line the cat’s litter box.

 
Regular garbage gets picked up weekly by the usual guys. We have special bins for recyclables that we put out every other week for pick-up by a special collection company. Any glass, plastics and cans go directly into the bins. Paper and cardboard we put in paper bags then put the bags in the bins or beside them if the ground isn’t wet.

 
For shopping I normally take cloth bags when I can. Whole Foods gives a 5-cent rebate for every reusable bag a customer uses, which can also be donated to a variety of charities. I’ll sometimes get plastic bags since we use them to line our trash cans (it makes more sense than buying trash bags as they’re only going to end up in a landfill anyway), and other times I’ll get paper since they’re used for the paper/cardboard recycling. Who knows, though…there’s talk of phasing out plastic bags altogether or at least charging for them around here so I may end up changing my habits even more.

 

I just spent the past two hours (re) watching The History Channel’s amazing and thought-provoking program, Life After People.

Explore the tantalizing question of whether all the remnants of mankind will eventually disappear from our planet. What would happen to the earth if humans ceased to exist? Would ocean life flourish, the buffalo return to the Great Plains and our skyscrapers yield to the wear and tear of time. Visit the ghostly villages surrounding Chernobyl, which were abandoned by humans after the nuclear disaster in 1986 and then travel to the remote islands off the coast of Maine to search for traces of abandoned towns that have vanished from view in only a few decades. Learn from experts in the fields of engineering, botany, ecology, biology, geology, climatology and archeology as they provide answers for many thought provoking questions.

I simply love these “what if” sorts of questions and scenarios. Perhaps that’s why I have such a fondness for utopian and dystopian fiction, time-travel tales and parallel universe stories. Here’s more about the show:

 
Now I’m looking forward to some of their other offerings like The Dark Ages , Silent Witnesses: The Kitty Genovese Murder (I’ve long had a fascination with the bystander intervention phenomenon) , Pueblo Cliffdwellers and countless others.

 

The enemies of science, rationality and historical truth are at it again. The following is a press release from the Center for Inquiry.

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
April 07, 2008

Contact: Nathan Bupp
Phone: (716) 636-4869 x. 218
E-mail: nbupp@centerforinquiry.net

(Amherst, New York) –The Center for Inquiry (CFI), an international think tank promoting science and secularism, released a 25-page report today detailing what it calls “egregious errors” sufficient enough to warrant “immediate correction,” in a widely used civics textbook found in many secondary schools around the country, including advanced placement courses. CFI believes that the textbook American Government: Institutions and Policies, 10th edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) contains inaccurate and misleading statements, in particular in its analysis of global warming and certain constitutional law issues. In response, CFI’s legal experts have analyzed the textbook and prepared a critique that sets forth recommended changes.

Derek Araujo, a lawyer and executive director for CFI’s New York office, spearheaded the textbook review project. Araujo stated that he was “surprised and dismayed that a textbook used in advanced placement courses would contain clearly erroneous statements about significant issues, such as global warming and school prayer.” Araujo recruited leading scientists, including Stuart D. Jordan from NASA, to provide their assessment of the book’s treatment of global warming.

CFI’s critique focuses on six areas: the science of global warming; the legality of school prayer; the significance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas; the alleged influence of the religious concept of “original sin” on the structure of the Constitution; the meaning of the Establishment Clause; and the significance of the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a case (what lawyers refer to as the denial of a writ of certiorari).

Ronald A. Lindsay, CFI’s general counsel, characterized the errors as “significant and inexcusable. For a civics textbook to state—as this book does—that the Supreme Court will not allow students to pray in schools betrays either a serious misunderstanding of the law or a willingness to have the textbook serve as a propaganda vehicle for the Religious Right.”

CFI maintains that it is very important for civics students to obtain accurate information about our Constitution, our legal system and public policy issues, and that instructional material should be objective and free of ideological bias.

The textbook critique was researched and written by Araujo, Lindsay, and Jordan. A downloadable PDF copy of the full report is available online here

Addendum. A comment has arrived. Ebon said:

It comes to something when the Religious Reich’s lies manage to find their way into textbooks.

 
The RRRW has infiltrated the controlling elements of our society; every branch of the government and the police, the military, school boards and others. They want their people in power positions as a means of achieving complete control of everything. There are even Dominionists among those RRRWers, and they make the standard RRRWers look like Mary Poppins.

I always wonder why they feel the need to go to such lengths. If their god is so all-powerful and intends to punish the crap out of all the sinners (which by their standards includes about 95% of us) then why don’t they just let him do it? Why not leave everybody the heck alone and leave the almighty god to do his work rather than making our lives hell on earth now?

But maybe they just don’t have the faith in their god that they claim they do, and that’s why they have to do his hating and punishing for him.

 

It’s all in the poop. Petrified poop, that is.

New evidence shows humans lived in North America more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than had previously been known. Discovered in a cave in Oregon, fossil feces yielded DNA indicating these early residents were related to people living in Siberia and East Asia, according to a report in Thursday’s online edition of the journal Science.

“This is the first time we have been able to get dates that are undeniably human, and they are 1,000 years before Clovis,” said Dennis L. Jenkins , a University of Oregon archaeologist, referring to the Clovis culture, well known for its unique spear-points that have been studied previously.

Humans are widely believed to have arrived in North America from Asia over a land-bridge between Alaska and Siberia during a warmer period. A variety of dates has been proposed and some are in dispute.

Few artifacts were found in the cave, leading Jenkins to speculate that these people stayed there only a few days at a time before moving on, perhaps following game animals or looking for other food.

The petrified poop — coprolites to scientists — is yielding a look at the diet of these ancient Americans, Jenkins said.

…..

The date for the new coprolites is similar to that of Monte Verde in southern Chile, where human artifacts have been discovered, added Willerslev.

Jenkins said it isn’t clear exactly who these people living in the Oregon caves were, since there were few artifacts found. He said there was one stone tool , a hand tool used perhaps to polish or grind or mash bones or fat.

“We are not saying that these people were of a particular ethnic group. At this point, we know they most likely came from Siberia or Eastern Asia, and we know something about what they were eating, which is something we can learn from coprolites. We’re talking about human signature,” he said.

…..

Jenkins said that discoveries like those in the Oregon caves “help us to reconstruct the American past.”

“Our heritage is really important and it is important to the majority of the American public. If you don’t know where you come from, it’s hard to have a feeling of community, of participation.”

…..

This is very exciting news indeed for a paleoanthropology and archeology buff like me. I’m simply fascinated with learning about our ancient ancestors, particularly Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. I must say, Jean M. Auel is to blame (so never let it be said that fiction is useless).

If you’re anything like me, the prospect of new books is an exciting one. So here is something to whet your appetite; forthcoming titles in a variety of intriguing genres. Enjoy!

This evening, March 29th at 8pm (your local time) join the celebration of Earth Hour. Make a statement about Global Warming by turning off your lights for one hour. Just think of the impact you can make!

Who says atheists are incapable of enjoying the beauty of the universe just because they don’t believe it was created by a god? (Yes, it’s some theists who say that, but it’s not true.) Just look at this and try to tell me it’s not simply incredible. As discovered at Space Feeds:

Cat’s Eye Hubble Remix
Credit & Copyright: Vicent Peris (OAUV / PTeam), MAST, STScI, AURA, NASA

Explanation: Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat’s Eye Nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. One of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky, the Cat’s Eye (NGC 6543) is over half a light-year across and represents a final, brief yet glorious phase in the life of a sun-like star. This nebula’s dying central star may have produced the simple, outer pattern of dusty concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. But the formation of the beautiful, more complex inner structures is not well understood. Here, Hubble Space Telescope archival image data has been reprocessed to create another look the cosmic cat’s eye. Compared to well-known Hubble pictures, the alternative processing strives to sharpen and improve the visiblility of details in light and dark areas of the nebula and also applies a more complex color palette. Of course, gazing into the Cat’s Eye, astronomers may well be seeing the fate of our Sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution … in about 5 billion years.