[FormerLib]

Some advocate abstinence and chastity as ways of reducing AIDS. In many quarters, such views are considered patently absurd.

Well, those that are smart enough to realize it works and have the discipline to practice it will live, the rest may die off. Perhaps this is simply a case of natural selection.

[goodnesswins]

SHEESH....YES, what YOU said....suppose some of us decided that we all should be able to SPIT anywhere we wanted...(I was going to use something else as an example, but ...)..while others thought this "spitting" habit was not healthy...soooo...if abstinence of spitting reduces disease....and someone considers "such views are considered patently absurd" guess who's running the health of our culture? (DOES this make sense?)

[NetValue]

"Perhaps this is simply a case of natural selection."

You make a very interesting point. However AIDS actually threatens all human life on the planet over the very long term. (The fewer humans there are, the greater the chance of species extinction.)

There are credible genetic researchers who theorize that humans once before declined in number (they guess ten thousand or fewer survived over the whole earth as the result of an ice age)and that humans today are descended from that small number. AIDS could do the same thing to the human species.