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From: dyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: History and Homosexuality (from The Village Idiot)
Message-ID: <19742@wivax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Jul-84 02:49:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: wivax.19742
Posted: Thu Jul 19 02:49:42 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Jul-84 06:58:15 EDT
References: <158@uwmacc.UUCP>
Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, Ma.  01879
Lines: 30

Paul,

Though Ron Rizzo may have been a little harsh, I think you are being a bit
disingenuous when you disallow any questioning of the reasons behind your
question.  To many (if not most) of the readers of this group, the linking
of homosexuality with the fall of a civilization seems absurd.  There is
not a shred of evidence to support such a statement, and as earlier
responses have stated, the linking of the falls of Greece and Rome
with the practice of homosexuality is simply bad logic and worse history.
Indeed, if one had an axe to grind against Christianity, it would make
as much sense to ascribe causality to that.  And, indeed, during the "fall"
intolerance towards gay people was the rule: the Golden ages were marked
by tolerance.

There is as much nonsense as truth carried in the phrases "it has been
said that..."  It had been said that masturbation causes insanity,
impotence and "neurasthenia."  Are we to take such a statement seriously
today?   The "fall" of a civilization (whatever that entails--this is more
an apocalyptic image that actual fact:  Rome took almost a millenium to
"fall") is due to a complex series of events, all interacting.  Isolating
homosexuality as a cause without any evidence that it contributed to the
social problems which led to the societies' dissolution is bound to draw
ridicule.  This is better phrased in the form, "Did God cause the societies
of Greece and Rome to fall because they practised homosexuality?"
Here at least, is a more honest inquiry, totally outside scientific discussion,
and completely unanswerable (except by God herself.)
-- 
/Steve Dyer
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