Responding to "Homosexuality is wrong, the same way incest is wrong"

[Meandering Atheist -J-]

There's no number of gay people or gay stories I'll ever see on tv that will "turn me gay".  I seriously doubt that this is how it works for anyone.

Have you ever wanted to drink a beer that tastes like piss? You didn't watch the advertisements and think "wow! If I drink that cheap beer then lots of hot girls will show up!" You were conditioned by advertisements to have a positive association with that product. The same thing can happen with just about any behaviour. The term to look for is 'operant conditioning'

Meandering:

Sure, Sam Harris says "let's agree morality is about maximising wellbeing". I am on board, that's what I think it should be about. And if someone thinks it's about something else, I'm going to try and explain why I think it's a bad idea.

However, from a philosophical point of view, all he's actually doing is excluding certain people from the discussion. I am fine with that, but I also like to keep in mind that if you ever want to bring other people round (those who don't agree about what morality should be about) you need to explain why your goals are better, not simply tell them they can't be part of the discussion.

Under Harris' definition, which most civilised people would agree with (after some make irrelevant extra points about god), homosexuality is in no way a danger to anyone's wellbeing and so is not a problem.

Could you go into more depth on who he actually excludes and why? I'm genuinely interested.

Now this is all me talking: Lets take this to the issue of homosexuality, namely the prevalence of homosexuals in the media. Normalizing a behaviour that is actually extremely rare in society is bound to convince some heterosexuals to embrace that lifestyle. Depending on how unhappy these people are, it could actually make the over portrayal of homosexuals an immoral practice. Not as bad as the over portrayal of violence perhaps, but still immoral.

This might just be the stupidest fucking thing I've heard all year.

Why is it that straight people are so fucking worried about people TURNING GAY, when they're the ones who are trying to TURN PEOPLE STRAIGHT.  I mean give me a fucking break.  They're the ones trying to 'fix' what isn't broken.  You don't see "Pray Away the Straight" therapy centers, now fucking do you?

Now, now. Surely you've heard stupider things this year. Please don't get the false impression that I actually want to prevent people from being who they want to be. My only (minor) concern is in social engineering, and pushing politically correct notions of acceptance too far.