Reply #150: Agreed, but the problem is... [View All]

... when people start speaking about "human nature", a significant portion of the population freaks right the hell out. Biological determinism has been used to justify some of the worst abuses mankind has ever been made to suffer, and for that reason, people view it with a skeptical eye. In fact, I was just told biological determinism is not valid because "it has been used to justify slavery" (scroll down the thread, it's down there somewhere).

To that, I can only respond with, read "The Mismeasure of Man" by Stephen Jay Gould. We may be animals and we may be genetically predisposed to certain behaviors, but we have the power to rationalize, to learn at an exponential rate, which something few, if any, other animals truly possess. If a monk can disregard the penultimate biological drive, the will to survive, and set himself ablaze in protest, then it is possible to overcome practically any biological impulse through sheer force of will.

In which case, you're correct. What does it matter if homophobia is an anachronistic evolutionary adaptation? We have shown ourselves capable of rising above it, and the only way to go from here is up.