Posted on 06/30/2008 11:15:24 AM PDT by kellynla
Homosexual behaviour is largely shaped by genetics and random environmental factors, according to findings from the world's largest study of twins.
Writing in the scientific journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, researchers from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm report that genetics and environmental factors (which are specific to an individual, and may include biological processes such as different hormone exposure in the womb), are important determinants of homosexual behaviour.
Dr Qazi Rahman, study co-author and a leading scientist on human sexual orientation, explains: "This study puts cold water on any concerns that we are looking for a single 'gay gene' or a single environmental variable which could be used to 'select out' homosexuality - the factors which influence sexual orientation are complex. And we are not simply talking about homosexuality here - heterosexual behaviour is also influenced by a mixture of genetic and environmental factors.
The team led by Dr Niklas Långström at Karolinska Institutet conducted the first truly population-based survey of all adult (20-47 years old) twins in Sweden. Studies of identical twins and non-identical, or fraternal, twins are often used to untangle the genetic and environmental factors responsible for a trait. While identical twins share all of their genes and their entire environment, fraternal twins share only half of their genes and their entire environment. Therefore, greater similarity in a trait between identical twins compared to fraternal twins shows that genetic factors are partly responsible for the trait.
This study looked at 3,826 same-gender twin pairs (7,652 individuals), who were asked about the total numbers of opposite sex and same sex partners they had ever had.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Baloney. It’s due to a choice to do that which is wrong in the sight of God.
“Random environmental factors”?What?That’s a huge scoop!
But it should be more specific.”Random” maybe mean unknown or forgoten...
Kind of like saying that an early death could be caused by genetics or random environmental factors, such as a lightening bolt.
I assume your study is also to be made available?
Oh, right - the Bible.
Well, maybe these are the people predestined to hell.
Either that or the ordeal of a lifetime of sexual frustration never acted on is the ‘trial by fire’ necessary to get into heaven.
Yes.
And I bet it only cost a few million dollars to reach that conclusion.
Genetic, environmental, social, biological, trendy... who knows the reasons why homosexuality occurs? My bet is that most of them were just sucked into it. -MKS
The behavior is a sin. The "feelings" are an illness.
The author of this article clearly (maybe intentionally) doesn't understand the difference.
People may be predisposed to all sorts of horrible behaviors because of their genes or upbringing. Violence, alcoholism, depression, pederasty, promiscuity, etc. That is no excuse for acting them out. We each have our own cross to bear.
Genetics=we are people and depraved at that. Capable of all kinds of evil, including homosexuality...beastiality, etc.
Environmental factors=Availability
Rot!
The same thing could be said about criminal behavior, business success, musical tastes, etc. etc. etc.
In this case ‘environment’ is code for indoctrination courtesy of government schools.
Now, according to some scientific theories, alcoholism may be genetic...there may be people who are naturally disposed to drink too much alcohol if they can get it.
Knowing these two facts, I would never walk up to him and say "You know what? You were born this way, so God must have intended you to be as you are. You simply can't help yourself. Let me buy you a beer!"
Most people, Liberals included, would probably think it bad to do this. "The man has a sickness he can't control! How thoughtless of you to enable him to endanger his health and the lives of those around him by encouraging him to do something that is bad for him! And by helping him risk his body in a matter where he could instead choose healthy behavior, you are actually taking money out of the medical insurance system that could be used for someone else who really needs it!"
And yet, for the past forty years or so, we have done just this. Under the lash of political correctness, we encourage people who have the mental disease of Same Sex Attraction Disorder (SADD) instead to feel good about doing something that has been condemned by most civilizations for six thousand years. It really doesn't matter if there are genetic predispositions to homosexual behavior. Like my father-in-law, every day is a choice. You can do what your lower nature says feels good, or you can reach out to God and pray for His strength to overcome what you know is wrong.
By the way, homosexuality has been universally condemned across religions and cultures since the dawn of time.
Some have more of a propensity to do the wrong thing in MANY different situations - alcoholism, theft, sexual moralit weakness, etc.
But those propensities do not let anyone off the hook for their behavior choices.
The liberal mantra against obvious reallity was that homosexuality is genetic and that one can do nothing to change the fate and that children should not be influenced by an homosexual environment...
Facts and history of sexual behaviours in various societies showed the contrary but it was not politically correct for lunatic libs...
Liberal socialist behaviour is largely shaped by genetics and random environmental factors, according to findings from the world’s largest study of twins.
Writing in the scientific journal Archives of Social Behavior, researchers from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, and Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm report that genetics and environmental factors (which are specific to an individual, and may include biological processes such as different hormone exposure in the womb), are important determinants of liberal socialist behaviour.
Dr Qazi Rahman, study co-author and a leading scientist on human social, political orientation, explains: “This study puts cold water on any concerns that we are looking for a single ‘liberal gene’ or a single environmental variable which could be used to ‘select out’ liberalism - the factors which influence social political orientation are complex. And we are not simply talking about liberalism here - whackoism behaviour is also influenced by a mixture of genetic and environmental factors.......................
Much less genetics and much more environmental, in those examples... I would say its like alchoholism; just because you have the inclining genes doesent mean you have to be a fall down drunk.
>> Baloney. It’s due to a choice to do that which is wrong in the sight of God.
The activity is due to a choice — certainly. The question is where the urge for that particular counterproductive activity comes from. My guess — it is a mental disorder.
Personally, I’ve never had a problem resisting that particular sin (though others have been far more difficult to resist).
So, the question is, why do some people even feel the urge to commit that particular sin? The answer to that question does not absolve responsibility for the sin ... any more than the genetic or environmentally bred urge to murder would absolve people from that crime. Even if you have an uncontrollable urge to commit sin, regardless of where that urge comes from, you are fully responsible for its commission.
The homosexual urge clearly does not stem from those “evolutionary” forces that some subscribe to — because it is counterproductive to procreation. If it were truly genetic, natural selection would make homosexuality become extinct very quickly ... as those with this particular genetic predisposition would be far less likely to procreate than those with a natural attraction to the opposite sex.
I suppose it could be somewhat environmental. But, even then ... try convincing a heterosexual male to participate in homosexual activity. Generally, they’re not interested. So it cannot be entirely environmental.
My guess, its a mental disorder ... a mental break with the natural order. It is not dissimilar to the urge to commit suicide, self-mutilation, eating disorders, obsessive compulsion, or others.
H
You mean because my genes probably help determine my sugar appetite, I’m not entitled to weigh 400 pounds and at the same time not be condemned by others or lectured to by doctors, family and friends? Dang.
“....and MAY (my caps) include biological processes such as different hormone exposure in the womb....”
In other words, still not scientifically proven.
An interesting study which once again overstates its own results. Not only is using fraternal and identical twins as control an invalid model but the genetics of individuals have been shown to change over time in response to the environment.
I have no doubt that people have propensities but people have sexual propensities for attractions to many things animate and inanimate, human and not. The one thing that these studies continue to attempt to disregard is the element of human free will in decisions. Attraction and sexual feelings may not be always rational but ones response to them most certainly can be.
Studies like this are put out in order to cloud and confuse the public. People have been so misled on the idea of genetic determinism that this destructive dehumanizing idea has the potential to weaken the whole of humanity if it hasn’t already. What a greater statement of hopelessness and victim hood than to say my genes made me do it? We may not be able to control our genetic starting point but we certainly can choose what we do with it provided we are born with the capacity to reason.
“bornred” nailed it, “People may be predisposed to all sorts of horrible behaviors because of their genes or upbringing. Violence, alcoholism, depression, pederasty, promiscuity, etc. That is no excuse for acting them out.”
The same thing could be said about criminal behavior, business success, musical tastes, etc. etc. etc.
Everything you do is beyond your control in the liberal bubble world!.....
Have you noticed how there are millions of dollars expended on research to somehow justify the attraction to homosexual behavior but anyone who has a repulsion to the exact same behavior is summarily dismissed as a bigot?
Yep, and the environmnet includes the fact that 90% of male homosexuals were molested by adult homosexuals.
So is alcoholism, but that don't make it right! Some things must be resisted because they are bad for you.
In past, much of the argument was put in terms of genetics *or* environment, but there are in reality as least five considerations, and possibly more.
Genetic factors, gestation process, chemical environmental, organic mental function, and sociological mental function.
Genetic factors include the theoretical “gay genes”, in which for some biological reason, offspring are not supposed to reproduce. But they also incorrectly reproduced genetic patterns.
For example, while it is not associated with homosexuality, some males, instead of being born with an “XY” chromosome, have either an “XXY” or an “XYY” pattern. Alternatively, the common “fragile X syndrome”, associated with retardation, is associated with a genetically passed defect in the “X” chromosome. Such chromosomal problems are not uncommon, though many are lethal.
Gestational process can determine sexuality in animals, but not people. Halfway through gestation, hormones are secreted, or not, that tells the brain of the fetus if it is male or female. While this would “force” sexuality in animals, it does not do so in humans, whose sexuality is far more complex. Other “process errors” are things that effect both the mother and her fetus, such as drugs and alcohol, smoking, trauma, etc. None are clearly associated with homosexuality, except in old wives tales, but might have some influence.
The chemical environment certainly affects children, especially before they have fully matured around age 21. Everything from metals, hormones, ionizing radiation, synthetic chemicals, toxins, and diet. Again, they are influential, but there are no clear associations with homosexuality.
Organic mental function varies radically between people, because we have different “wiring” in our brains, as well as our different balances of perhaps 200 brain chemicals, interacting with 50 liver chemicals, a bunch of powerful hormones, our nauseatingly complex immune systems, our environment and our genetics.
Sociological mental function is learned behavior based on our culture, education and society. Different from the other processes that influence sexuality, instead of making us more variable, it is restrictive and discriminatory, or not, to our behavior. It is very influential in determining who sexually interests us and who does not, and why.
In aberrant behavior, someone who is organically mentally incapable of empathizing with others is called a psychopath. One who has been trained to not empathize with others is a sociopath. Both achieve something of the same result. But again, they are just part of the situation.
That's correct. Next time somebody makes you feel bad about yourself or makes you question your self worth, you just give a call to my lawyers (Dewey, Cheatem and Howe) and we'll set them back a decade or so.
Why would God create so many sinners? Seems a little perverse.
Notice how they equate desire, temptation and/or even pre-disposition to “behavior.” Baloney. Neither genetics nor environment or any combination of the two dictate behavior. Behavior is the result of an engagement of will toward a desire or temptation.
It is ironic that a group can claim that they should always surrender to their temptation and act it out while people who are repulsed by their activity should be restrained by the government from demonstrating in any manner their revulsion. One group should not restrain their behavior while another should. Crazy, huh?
How do you know that? As The Creator, he creates everything. Double talk.
Cool. First let me eat myself up to 400 pounds, won’t take too long if I try really hard.
You, sir, are abusing the Word of God.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb 2:18
If temptation is equal to sin, then Jesus sinned. We know that cannot be true. Jesus was without sin even though tempted as we are.
In Matthew 5, Jesus was warning the Pharisees not to consider restraint of behavior as the only measure of righteousness. It does no good to restrain your body from the exercise of sin if you surrender your mind to enjoy sin inwardly. We are not to indulge the flesh with sin and that includes our mind being full of sinful thoughts.
But we cannot equate temptation with sin. The Bible does not allow that. To do so makes our Lord out to be a sinner. It also implies that there is no moral difference between a though and a deed. Scripture does not say that. There is a big difference between the thought of murder and murder. That difference is a dead person. There is a big difference between a living person and a dead person.
” homosexuality has been universally condemned across religions and cultures since the dawn of time.”
Don’t tell that to the ancient Greeks or Romans!
Identical twins have the same genes. However fraternal twins come from two separate eggs and two separate sperm. They do not share half their genes. If this study doesn't even understand this why bother reading their results.
It is a choice!!!
Had those two boys been counseled they would have had a choice to change back. It is a choice. My bet they were abused or ignored ann this was their cry for attention or coping.
Everyone he created is a sinner, less one.
According to the Bible, that's ALL of us - Romans 3:23
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