The nature of
religious belief has always made it difficult to
scientifically test the
truth of its announced principles. After all, most 'causes' in theological systems are
metaphysical, and so inobservable in their action. Indeed, one of the great give-and-takes of challenges to the scientific testability of religious beliefs is that the responsible superior metaphysical entities are aware of the 'test' and refuse to play along. Simply put, it is claimed that if a
miracle is demanded such as the restoration of an
amputated arm, the entity capable of so performing will refuse to do so, cleverly denying those who do not believe in it any rational basis for adopting such belief.
But what if there were a scientifically testable metaphysical occurrence which did
not require the intervention of a metaphysical entity -- indeed, one which counted on nonintervention of such entities in order to be able to occur? Exactly such an occurrence manifests in the
Biblical doctrine of the origin of carnivorous life out of the idyllic
utopia of the
Garden of Eden. Specifically, it is a popular doctrine in fundamentalist
Christianity that
sharks,
alligators,
tigers,
scorpions,
crocodiles,
wolves and other animals of this sort were, in the days before
Adam and
Eve bit into that unfortunate
fruit, all dedicated plant-eaters, living together in harmony, incapable of killing
or dying. So it is written in Genesis 1:30:
And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—-I give every green plant for food. And it was so.
And so, when
skeptics question why the 'good' and 'loving' deity of Christianity would drop man in a world full of biting, bloodsucking, and man-eating beasts, the Christian answer is that no
deity had anything to do with this, oh no; our Creator created a world with no sin and no
death (and, indeed, Christians point out that if the Creator
had created a world wherein death existed, then man had no fall and there would be no point to the
sacrifice of
Jesus, falsifying all of Christianity!!) It was instead, so goes the claim, man's
sin which caused this to become a fallen world, and caused all of those previously happily herbivorous creatures to
experience super-fast evolution into bloodthirsty carnivores, who had no choice but to kill for their sustenance. No deity had any hand in that; it was sin and sin alone which caused this
transformation.
Okay, so let's test this out!!
First, we must find some dedicated
homosexuals. Preferably, for thoroughness sake, we ought to have at least one male homosexual couple, and one
lesbian couple. Next, we take a well known herbivorous animal such as a
cow. We will place the cow in a room adjacent with a gay couple having a
gay wedding and thereafter engaging in hardcore gay sex -- all activities generally classed by those fundamentalist Christians as 'sin.' And, simply put, if the cow then turns from a peaceful grass-muncher into a flesh-rending, saber-toothed, razor-clawed carnivorous predator, then we will know that homosexuality is indeed a 'sin.' On the other hand, if no such transformation occurs, then we will know at the least that homosexuality is no sin at all; and quite possibly that the whole of Christianity is false. In fact, the latter proposition can be tested by performing unquestionably sinful acts in that bovine proximity,
blasphemy,
adultery, wearing fabrics made of the fibers of two different
plants, working on the
Sabbath, worshiping idols, coveting their neighbors' asses -- we can run through quite a list and still stop short of anything which harms any person or property.
So, with this exciting prospect before us, of scientifically determining whether homosexuality is sinful (or, indeed, whether 'sin' at all is real), let's gather up some gay folks and some cattle, and do some science!!