Replies

When people deny the reality in front of them because of some weird ideology, that's usually called "mental illness." In America, we call it "Fundamentalist Christianity." No matter how much proof scientists have that gays don't get to "choose" to be fairies, you will reject it.

So how long have you had these feelings about "Fundamentalist Christians"?

You do realize, don't you, that that statement is in fact an expression of extreme hatred?

Here is the response you wanted. If, in the future, you ever really want a response to a post, feel free to FReepmail me.

You do realize, don't you, that that statement is in fact an expression of extreme hatred?

Is it, really?

First, we have to have some sort of definition of mental illness: Mental illness is when someone operates according to rules seriously outside of reality, and this has negative consequences. I think that's a good definition as any.

If people choose to believe something unscientific just because it "fits" better with their ideology, then they aren't really operating in our reality. If they want to believe that homos have a choice just because their religion says homosexuality is a sin (and you can't have sin without choice), then they aren't interested in reality. This does have negative consequences, because it leads them to mistreat homosexuals.

If someone was preaching that a racial minority was inherently sinful, and that the evidence for it was all around us, we might consider them to be mentally ill, right? If some group of people gathered on a street corner to express their views, loudly, and if they wrote letters to the editors of newspapers, and formed political groups to have their voice heard, we would consider them to be whacky. If they cited unscientific junk to make their claims, or even pointed to the Bible, we wouldn't take them seriously.

Why? Because we know they're wrong. Likewise, scientists can see that there is a biological component to homosexuality. Certain people deny this because it interferes with their religious or political beliefs. They deny science because they don't like the results of it. They deny reality because they don't want to live in this reality.

Is this an extremely hateful view? I don't think so. Considering that there is plenty of room in what I said to accomodate non-anti-science Christians who accept the world around them in addition to their Bible stories.