Free Republic

When I asked people why or why not they thought homosexuality was a choice, I asked for specificity and examples, so unless it was especially funny or insightful, I included only the best of the feedback that stayed within the guidelines. Let’s get to it. “Every truly gay friend I’ve ever had believes he was born that way. They say they knew as early as they could remember that it was same-sex people who made their hearts beat faster.” “I think you’re born that way. Too many kids I knew growing up came out of the closet when they left...

The real problem with the gay marriage issue is that the truth can only be found in either the spiritual or the scientific. The question that matters most is whether or not a person can be born gay. And the only possible way to answer this seems to be by discovering a gene that determines sexual preference or by believing in the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality and assuming this means everyone is born straight. Simply posing the question generally infuriates gays. First, the question seems to carry with it the tone that homosexuality is some sort of handicap, like asking...

Liars' brains 'are not the same'   A deceitful person's brain is different, the study suggests Habitual liars' brains differ from those of honest people, a study says.A University of Southern California team studied 49 people and found those known to be pathological liars had up to 26% more white matter than others. White matter transmits information and grey matter processes it. Having more white matter in the prefrontal cortex may aid lying, the researchers said, But the British Journal of Psychiatry said there were likely to be more differences in the brains of liars. Manipulative behaviourParticipants were volunteers...

Last Friday at a conference on economics at Harvard, Larry Summers, economist and President of that university ventured to explain the paucity of women at high levels of science and math; it might be due in part to "innate differences" between men and women. Fortunately, it was winter in Cambridge so no fans were in operation, but the hit was palpable. "Innate differences!" Horrors. It would take a master parodist to construct a more Victorian response than that given by Nancy Hopkins, an MIT biologist. She was "profoundly disturbed" "I felt I was going to be sick." "My heart was...