Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 9

of the action, and some others hold unto the dictates of human practical reason (synderesis). The intuitionist school of thought, for example, takes intuition as the moral standard. Intuitionism is an ethical theory which maintains that we know right and wrong actions by intuition. But there is a fundamental problem with these views, they only provide us with opinions which are not necessarily immune from error . 26 If one person claims that he knows 'by intuition' that homosexuality is morally wrong, another man may also claim to know 'by intuition' that the same action is morally right," thus, leaving us with conflicting intuitions. So, although there is no exclusive or absolute moral standard, a moral standard still remains the foundation for making moral decisions. 27 Despite the fact that homosexual practices have occurred in the ancient world centuries before their appearance in Athens; the substantial body of evidence of ancient homosexuality that is available, in written forms and archaeological findings, comes from the ancient Greek civilization. That the ancient Greeks practiced homosexuality is a pertinent fact to note, 28 especially when one considers the pivotal role that the Greek civilization has played in shaping the western world, which is today on many fronts the pace-setter of the world. The Christian tradition has generally proscribed any and all non-coital genital activities, whether engaged in by couples or individuals, regardless of whether they were of the same or different sex. 29 The Catholic Church's position specifically on homosexuality, developed from the teachings of the Church Fathers, which was in stark contrast to Greek and Roman attitudes towards same- sex relations including the "(usually erotic) homosexual relationship between an adult male and a pubescent or adolescent male," is called pederasty. The modern arguments in favor of homosexuality, have been insufficient to overcome the evidence that homosexual behavior is against divine and natural law, as the Bible and the Church, as well as the wider circle of Jewish and Christian (as well as Muslim) writers, have always held. 30 People have a basic, ethical intuition that certain behaviors are wrong because they are unnatural. We perceive intuitively that the natural sex partner of a human is another human, not an animal. The same reasoning applies to the case of homosexual behavior. The natural sex partner for a man is a woman, and the natural sex partner for a woman is a man. Thus, people have the corresponding intuition concerning homosexuality that they do about bestiality, that it is wrong because it is unnatural . 31 Natural law reasoning is the basis for almost all standard moral intuitions. For example, it is the dignity and value that each human being naturally possesses that makes the needless destruction of human life or infliction of physical and emotional pain immoral. This gives rise to a host of specific moral principles, such as the unacceptability of murder, kidnapping, mutilation, physical and emotional abuse, and so forth. 32 Many homosexuals argue that they have not chosen their condition, but that they were born that way, making homosexual behavior natural for them. But because something was not chosen does not mean it was inborn. Some desires are acquired or strengthened by habituation and conditioning instead of by conscious choice. For example, no one chooses to be an alcoholic, but one can become habituated to alcohol. Just as one can acquire alcoholic desires (by repeatedly becoming intoxicated) without consciously choosing them, so one may acquire homosexual desires (by engaging in homosexual fantasies or behavior) without consciously choosing them. 33 Since sexual desire is subject to a high degree of cognitive conditioning in humans (there is no biological reason why we find certain scents, forms of dress, or forms of underwear sexually stimulating), it would be most unusual if homosexual desires were not subject to a similar degree of cognitive conditioning. The morality of homosexuality is not a philosophical issue per se , but one can use objectivist principles to evaluate the morality of homosexuality in any given situation. 34 The Catholic Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society. Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity. 35 The Church cannot fail to 72 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue IX Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals The Ethical Emotivism of A. J. Ayer and C. L. Stevenson: A Tendentious Explanatory Matrix for Human Homosexual Behaviour 26 Paul Welsh & Mary Warnock (1962) “Ethics since 1900,” Philosophical Review 71 (3):390. 27 Philippa Foot (1967) “Theories of Ethics,” Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 163:220-221. 28 Nancy Demand & Kenneth James Dover , (1980) “Greek Homosexuality,” American Journal of Philology 101 (1):121-23 29 David Newheiser (2015) “Sexuality and Christian Tradition,” Journal of Religious Ethics 43 (1):122-124. 30 Michael Benoit (2005) “Conflict between Religious Commitment and Same-Sex Attraction: Possibilities for a Virtuous Response,” Ethics and Behavior 15 (4):309-311. 31 John Skalko (2020) “Would Aquinas Support Homosexual Activity If He Were Alive Today?” Heythrop Journal 61 (2):275-277. 32 John D. Kronen & Eric H. Reitan (1999) “Homosexuality, Misogyny, and God’s Plan,” Faith and Philosophy , 16 (2): 213-215. 33 Raja Halwani, Gary Jaeger, James S. Stramel, Richard Nunan, William S. Wilkerson & Timothy F. Murphy (2008) “What is Gay and Lesbian Philosophy?” Metaphilosophy 39 (4-5):433-435. 34 Howard H. Chiang (2010) “Liberating Sex, Knowing Desire: Scientia Sexualis and Epistemic Turning Points in the History of Sexuality,” History of the Human Sciences 23 (5):42-44. 35 Tabea Cornel (2020) “An Even-Handed Debate? The Sexed/Gendered Controversy over Laterality Genes in British Psychology, 1970s–1990s,” History of the Human Sciences 33 (5):138- 140.