Homosexuality is a sin and if one continues in the sin, then it will sadly lead that person to hell.

My opponent starts by saying that many people in our world do not understand the concept of "love". I agree. If you choose to condemn another human being on the basis of the gender of the person they love, then you do not understand love. If you think that a loving god would condemn someone to eternal torture because of their sexuality (or indeed for any other reason), then you do not understand love. And if you profess that to get around this dilemma, that loving god killed himself, to appease himself, so that all may be forgiven as long as they become his willing emotional slaves on earth, then you do not understand love. My opponent has much work ahead of him in this debate. To win it, I submit that the burden of proof is clearly on him to show that homosexuality is a sin, and that 'if continued in' (whatever that means) that person will be sent to hell. Now sin is a word that only has meaning in a religious context, and my opponent makes it perfectly clear that he is arguing from a Christian context. I am not however prepared to concede unchallenged that the Bible is the inspired word of God. If my opponent wishes to argue that the Bible condemns homosexuality and therefore that homosexuality is a sin, then he must first demonstrate that God exists and that the Bible is an accurate reflection of his message to humanity. Only then will the argument he articulated above begin to have any weight. Furthermore, the burden of proof is also on my opponent to prove that hell exists and that all homosexuals will be sent there if they 'continue in the sin.' Furthermore, he must also clearly define what he actually means by this phrase. My stance on this matter is very simple. A significant minority of the human population feel romantic and/or sexual attraction towards those of the same sex. The reasons for this attraction are unknown. [1] No single 'gay gene' has been found, but current evidence suggests that this state of affairs is largely determined by genetics and random environmental factors. [2] Whatever the exact truth, there is no evidence to suggest that in the general population one's sexuality is a simple choice, in the same way that one can choose which clothes to wear or what music to listen to. Some members of the population also claim that homosexual behaviour is immoral. They claim, as my opponent does, that it is a sin, and against the law of god. However, not only can they not demonstrate with any reasonable degree of certainty that this god even exists - their best (and by and large only) evidence for this is an ancient collection of confused and contradictory writings by scientifically illiterate men, which cannot be taken seriously as a truthful message by anyone today - but they can't even come up with a rational explanation as to why that god would outlaw homosexuality. The simple fact is that if god exists, if he is good and if he says that homosexuality is a sin - all things claimed by my opponent in his first statement - then there will be a good, rational reason as to why he would do so. So I ask my opponent: what is that reason? I will now turn the floor back over to my opponent, and I look forward to his response. [1] = http://www.apa.org... [2] = http://esciencenews.com...