"We are not born with particular persuasion... be it religion, sexual preference, type of school, type of work... we form a liking for them individually.... this does not make what we like right!!!!!!"

I would tend to 'argue' against the sexual preference and not being born with one. We may not express it early on but there is now lots of evidence to suggest that sexuality is set in utero. That does not mean that some fluidity is not shown in life over sexual preference, but that is more to do with bisexuality being established. Nurture, in this case, could only be expressive if the Nature was already there. I, personally, am still convinced one cannot be made to be gay, bi or straight no more than we can be made to have genuine blonde hair, blue eyes, etc., etc.

All this said, I also note your comments to Smokey later on in the thread so can see you are quite open to other ideas too. Alas, Freudian theories and I seldom get along very well but that is because I consider his ideas to be so very sexist and predjudicial to women generally (IMHO).

As far as the thread goes I think it is an honourable stance the OP makes. The last great predjudice is probably prejudice itself. Without prejudice life would be so much better for so many. I fear prejudice is firmly entrenched in nurture and is only natural in so far as it is a human behaviour. Stealing and lying (or at least deceipt) are natural behaviors shared by other animals (where there is either a survival or a reproductive advantage) mostly.

"Natural behavior is behavior that tends to protect, nurture and grow one's well-being" may be from a psycho-sociological point of view, but in the true meaning of the word natural (to do with Nature), not all expressed behaviours have such noble outcomes. Infanticide is a natural behaviour, and extremely common in many animal groups, with very good reasons within evolution for it to happen, but in humans is considered completely unacceptable by most social groups.

Some things will never be acceptable in a civilised, caring, society. We are getting better now at identifying further areas of behaviour and what is at the bottom of it evolutionarily. Hopefully we will get better at not displaying prejudices even to those behaviours that are unacceptable (for instance I never see a time coming where paedophilia will be acceptable within society) by being able to treat those who suffer from them with humanity and compassion. We may need to segregate some from society but that does not mean we cannot treat them humanely.

As true equality bites and becomes more mainstream the labels will not mean anything any longer and we will all be able to see each other for the very thing that makes us all unique: our individuality combined not with WHAT we are, but WHO we are

mp