...I can't be bothered deleting all the inappropriate flaming, but I took a note of the incriminating posts. Any more like that and I'll start banning, kthnx.
I'm not sure brain damage can turn you gay, but I have a hard time swallowing that "you're born with it." It seems a lot like a copout from the real issue.
That statement probably requires dissection. Since the homosexuality thread seems to have sunk a few pages back (surprisingly), I'll deal with it here.
I am also skeptical of the "you're born with it", to the extent that I'm skeptical of certain uses of the statement "God created everything" (seeing as I'm non-theist agnostic). That is to say that in some way or another both could be construed to be true but in what sense, if any, is this actually meaningful?
I have an answer for the former, at least. "You're born with it" most properly refers to arguments that support the existence of a
hardwired sexual orientation. Proving such a thing is difficult obviously because the only real indicators of sexual orientation is sexual behavior, and behavior itself is influenced by a plethora of factors.
Nonetheless I'm of the belief that there is
some use for believing that to some extent (or a variable extent), individuals are predisposed to their own sexual behaviors, just as they are predisposed to other behaviors. There is no fundamental/taxonomical difference between 'sexual' behavior and other 'social' behaviors. The only reason people make such a big deal of it is due to the cultural significance of sex.
Which is where the "you're born with it" starts to become a copout: in the political arena. "You're born with it" is frequently used as a catch-all, the bottom line of many an argument in which constructive "fact-bashing" has ground to a halt. It is also used to preempt such arguments by conclusively asserting that there is
nothing you can do otherwise...or rather there is nothing you can do to persuade the person to engage any points to the contrary.
That's not good argumentation and like saying "GOD CREATED EVERYTHING THEREFORE EVOLUTION IS A CROCK", it just leaves
so much out. That's why to me it's a copout from the real issues, because it precludes discussion of such.
I have no idea whether brain damage can change your sexual orientation per se. I have however seen how sexual behavior
changes in certain cases of brain damage, in particular frontal lobe lesions.
For what it's worth I can trace my psychosexual roots a long way back and they've stayed pretty consistent despite my self-beliefs and perceived orientation changing. Perhaps it is fair to say that I was "born" with something, but retrospective analysis is always limited.
Issues, what kind of people does Strop hang out with??? Creepy...
First as Zophia said, I was speaking English. I'd go so far to say that it was perfect English insofar as I made no grammatical or spelling errors.
People who tell me to 'speak English' can expect to get e-backhanded because for one it's rude, and for another I don't speak any other language except a smattering of French.
Also you'll eventually learn that the world is full of all sorts and not every single one of them are creepy. At least I hope so.
