The bulk of this show was actually a very fun Patron of the Week interview, but I also had some thoughts on the suicide of Leelah Alcorn. Her death is incredibly sad, but I hope her words may help others. Clearly we still have a long way to go regarding transgender acceptance, but if you’re a fellow atheist we can at least take comfort in the fact that we are not perpetuating this terrible problem.
Apologies to Michael for his Patron of the week segment falling along with such a sad and somber topic!
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Most of the theists I’ve spoken with do believe people are born with certain sexual proclivities. It’s why they often compare homosexuality with things like bestiality, or pedophilia. While you and I recognize consent as what distinguishes those things from homosexuality, their religious texts make no such distinction. So it’s not being born gay, or a pedophile for that matter that’s the problem, it’s acting on those urges that makes one a sinner.
I wanted to add something because I don’t want to be misunderstood. First of all I said born with because that’s the term you use. I would say being gay is not a choice. I make this distinction because I’m not sure why people are pedophiles, or attracted to animals except to believe it is also not a choice. There may be different degrees to which nature, and nurture effect those proclivities, but they have a lack of choice in common. No one chooses to be attracted to people of the same sex, children, or animals.
I should have waited till the podcast is over, and avoided having to make another comment, but the answer is yes. They do expect people to go against their nature. Not that they would expect a gay person to have sex with someone of the opposite sex, but they would expect them not to have sex with someone of the same gender. The same way they would expect a pedophile not to have sex with children, or a psychopath not to kill people. Understandably given their mindset they oppose gay marriage as well because the see it as condoning, or endorsing sin.
A bit of a tangent, but in regards to dowsing being a third-world problem, this is not the case. Dowsing is prevalent throughout the US, although it is usually limited to rural areas. It is usually not portrayed as a magical ability, instead being presented as a talent; usually electromagnetism is vaguely invoked as an explanation, given that most dowsing tools supposedly rely on being metal. The disturbing thing is that belief in dowsing is wildly prevalent amongst civil engineers, typically as a supposed way of locating flowing water that could be a problem in construction. Usually they will take pin flags (very thin-gauge wire), balance it on the tip of their finger, and walk until it turns sideways; this is, of course, nonsense, but they become incredibly defensive if you question it. Frankly, there is no reliable way of locating flowing water without systematic drilling, so I think that the smarter engineers know that it is bullshit, but utilize it, since so many people believe in it, to back up a trained eye for topography and an educated guess. Still, it is a bizarre and disturbing aspect of civil engineering.