Thread:Comments:Petition urges Apple to remove 'anti-gay' app/Seems silly/reply (8)

You say that this argument is invalid? Let's take a closer look at it. The argument is an a explanatory one, and the explanandum is that some humans have a homosexual drive. Here's how I reconstruct the argument: P1. A certain class of God-given properties are given to us for the purpose of overcoming them. P2. Homosexuality is one of these properties. C. Homosexuality is given to us for the purpose of overcoming it.

Your objection is that there are cases of homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom. This doesn't seem to be saying that the above argument is invalid, but objecting to either P1 or P2. If you are right, then the argument is valid, but unsound.

The ex-gays would probably reply to your objection like this: Why do animals rape and murder their conspecifics (which there are also clearly documented cases of)? Just because animals don't have free will (a claim I wouldn't endorse, but the group(s) we're talking about might), it doesn't follow that their behavior is a good model for how God wants humans to behave. Ex-gays, creationists, and Christians in general might need to give an different explanation of immoral animal behavior, since P1 doesn't apply, but it doesn't make their explanation of human desires invalid or necessarily unsound.

A 'pro-gay' Christian would probably object to this argument by denying P2 - that homosexual actions are not in the same class as murder and rape. Anti-gay Christian groups support P2 by citing 'clobber verses.'