When I first saw this on another site I frequent, I honestly thought it was a troll post. The title for the thread was "Gay marriage proven scientifically impossible." I had expected either someone listing off a bunch of wackadoo clearly intended to raise the ires of those who support gay rights or someone listing off a bunch of wackadoo he/she/it/other-preferred-pronoun thought was perfectly rational and totally justified their bigotry. That wasn't what I found, but what was there was disgusting enough.
The OP had found in their own stumbling around the internet an article about a Nigerian post-graduate student at the University of Lago named Chibuihem Amalaha who claims that through scientific analysis he has proven gay marriage to be wrong. He did so by exploring multiple avenues of scientific thought and across multiple scientific disciplines, though the linked article only discussed the proof based on the physics of magnetism.
That article linked to another article on the website of Thisday, a Nigerian news paper. The Nigerians were kind enough to print summaries of all of Amalaha's psuedoscientific analysis. Learn more below the orange turd.
The article starts with a brief introduction of Amalaha by the writer, saying he had a "disarming smile" and spoke "with the confidence of an achiever." He (and I'm assuming it's a he because I can't for the life of me find the name of the "journalist" who wrote this), then allowed Amalaha to describe his background, an act that displays the size of his ego.
“I was the first to publish report about the 2006 total solar eclipse in the newspaper in Nigeria when I was writing for the defunct New Age newspaper. I also reported the true situation about the 2010 acid rain in Nigeria. I carried out analysis and found out that there was nothing like cancer of the skin attributed to the acid rain and by 2011, I emerged the best science reporter in Nigeria where I won Nigeria Media Merit Award in the energy category as a science editor with Compass newspapers.”
He continued: “Ever since then I have been doing a lot of researches in the country. There are many discoveries and inventions I have made in science and technology. I have also been able to prove that the mathematical symbol pi which people thought of as 22 over 7 is not actually 22 over , but rather a transcendental number while 22 over 7 is a rational number. I also proved that watching television in the dark impacts negatively on one’s eyes and by God’s grace, I was the first person to use scientific instruments to prove it in the whole world. The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) featured me on this in one of their programmes on January 12, 2013, where I demonstrated to millions of their viewers that watching television in the dark damages the eyes. Usually when it’s around 10pm, many families in Nigeria will switch off their surrounding lights to use the light from television or the light from computer alone thinking that they will see images brighter. But from experiments I found that it’s not true and experts both at the University of Lagos and elsewhere have found my work to be true. The reason for this is because there is a lot of difference in illuminants (brightness) between the television screen and the dark background in the room known as the periphery,” Amalaha said.
Yes, those are some incredible achievements. Amalaha has managed to prove that one of the common approximations for Pi does not actually equal Pi. I am astounded by this revelation. He has also proven what mothers across the globe have been telling their children from the moment those younglings begin their love affair with boob tube. I'm especially impressed by his achieving acclaim as "the best science reporter in Nigeria," a title that (after reading about your findings) I'm sure is only equated by "the sanest axe-murderer in the looney-bin."
After introducing himself, Amalaha then describes his motivation for his "scientific" study.
The Wrong Act of Gay Marriage
Then, he zeroed in on his research about gay marriage. He said: “In recent time I found that gay marriage,which is homosexuality and lesbianism, is eating deep into the fabric of our human nature all over the world and this was why nations of Sodom and Gomora were destroyed by God because they were into gay practice. That is, a man marrying another man and a woman marrying another woman.
“A recent publication on May 3, 2013 shows that France is the 14th country in the world that have legalised gay. I asked myself why should a man be marrying a man and a woman marrying a woman, does it mean that there is no more female for a man to marry or there is no more male for a woman to marry? And recently, Britain told Nigeria to legalise gay marriage of forfeit international aid. I thank God for our lawmakers who refused to sign the bill legalising gay marriage. And so God gave me the wisdom to use science as a scientist to prove gay marriage wrong.
“In the area of physics, I used physics with experiments, I used chemistry with experiments, I used biology with experiments and I used mathematics to prove gay marriage wrong.
Science and religion working together to justify dehumanization. Awe-inspiring. Tell me more.
The Physics of Gay Marriage
“To start with, physics is one of the most fundamentals of all the sciences and I used two bar magnets in my research. A bar magnet is a horizontal magnet that has the North Pole and the South Pole and when you bring two bar magnets and you bring the North Pole together you find that the two North Poles will not attract. They will repel, that is, they will push away themselves showing that a man should not attract a man. If you bring two South Poles together you find that the two South Poles will not attract indicating that same sex marriage should not hold. A female should not attract a female as South Pole of a magnet does not attract the South Pole of a magnet. But, when you bring a North Pole of a magnet and a South Pole of a magnet they will attract because they are not the same, indicating that a man will attract a woman because of the way nature has made a female. Even in physics when you study what is called electrostatics, you found that when you rub particles together they don’t attract each other but when you rub particle in another medium they will attract each other. For example, if you use your biro and rub it on your hair, after rubbing, try to bring small pieces of paper they will attract because one is charged while the other one is not charged. But if both of them are charged they don’t attract, which means that man cannot attract another man because they are the same, and a woman should not attract a woman because they are the same. That is how I used physics to prove gay marriage wrong.
Hmmm... Chibi- can I call you Chibi? Chibi I see a problem with your reasoning. I mean, the metaphor presented by opposite magnetic poles attracting is great but it really doesn't have anything to do with human sexuality, does it? North poles attract south poles because outside of a magnet magnetic lines of flux travel from north poles to south poles in as straight a line as possible and prefer to be outside a magnetic for a little as possible. Likewise, north poles repel north poles because magnetic lines of flux don't go north to north, and since they can't cross each other they have to distort themselves, which lines of flux don't like to do. These findings would be relevant, I'm sure, if the brain operated on magnetic interactions, but it doesn't. Brains operate on bio-chemical reactions. But, you know what, I recognize that you did more analyses than just this one so let's go ahead and move on to the next.
The Chemistry of Gay Marriage
“In chemistry, I used chemical reactions and we have different types of chemical reactions. We have double decomposition reaction, decomposition reaction, neutralisation reaction and reduction oxidation reaction. But in chemistry I used a simple one known as neutralisation reaction which is a reaction where an acid reacts with a base to give you salt and water. For example, when you bring surphuric acid and you reacts it with sodium hydroxide which is a base you are going to have salt and water. That tells you that the acid is a different body, the base is a different body and they will react. But if you bring an acid and you pour it on top of an acid chemistry there will be no reaction. If you bring water and pour it on top it shows that there will be no reaction. If you bring a base either sodium hydroxide and you pour it on top of a sodium hydroxide you find out that there will be reaction showing that a man on top of a man will have no reaction. A woman on top of a woman will have no reaction, that is what chemistry is showing. Even in chemistry when you also use a process called electrolysis, which is if you use electrolysis of acidilated water, that is water you drop some droplets of acid on it, you found that the negative ions will be attracted to the positive ones while the positive ions will be attracted to the negative ones. So the negative ones are not attracted to their peers, they are all attracted to the positive electrode and the positive ones are not attracted to the positive electrode. Instead, the negative ion is attracted to positive electrodes and why is it that the negative is attracted to the positive? It is because they are not the same. Likewise a man cannot be attracted to a man as negative ion is not attracted to the negative electrode instead negative ion is attracted to the positive electrode. That is what electrolysis is showing us that gay marriage is wrong in the area of chemistry
Ummm... Chibi again I think you've got a decent metaphor, but I'm just not seeing the actual connection. True, electrostatic charges cause like charge particles to repel and unlike particles to attract, but chemical interactions that affect things like sexual attraction are all internal to our own brains. The chemical content of someone else's head doesn't actually affect the chemical reactions in our own. Your argument here just isn't doing for me. Whatever, you still have a few more arrows in your quiver, I'm certain you'll start shooting straighter if I let you get on with it so let's get on with it.
The Biology of Gay Marriage
“In biology, I used simple experiments and I came down to a lay man. We have seen that the female of a fowl is called hen and the male of a fowl is called a cock. We have never seen where a cock is having sex with a cock and we have never seen where a hen is having sex with another. Even among lions when you go to the zoo you find out that lion does not mate with a lion instead a lion will mate with a lioness showing that a lion being a male will mate with lioness being a female. Now if animals that are of even lower creature understand so much, how come human being made in the higher image of God that is even of higher creature will be thinking of a man having sex with another and woman having sex with another woman? That shows that it’s a misnomer and when you come to real biological standard, when you see a lady you love there is what is called the follicle stimulating hormone. The follicle stimulating hormone in a man triggers what is called spermatogenesis through your brain which is called hypothalamus. It will send message to your brain when you see a lady you love and through the hypothalamus you will go after the lady. And it will trigger your spermatogenesis and the lady’s host follicles stimulating hormone will be triggered by the hypothalamus and it will stimulate her ovarian follicle. So in the man is the spermatogenesis, in female it’s the ovarian follicle. You find out that the sperm alone does not produce a child and the ovary alone in the female does not produce a child. They need each other for reproduction to occur and the follicle stimulating hormone in the man and that of the female promote different things. The sperm in the man alone doesn’t produce a child and ovary in the female alone does not produce a child, they need each other for reproduction to occur. So that shows how biology proves that gay marriage is wrong.
Ermmm... Chibi not all of that is actually true. Homosexual behavior has been quite well documented in numerous species. In fact, the very lions in the zoo you mention are actually more likely to engage in homosexual behavior than in the wild. Further, we really don't know what causes the release of follicle stimulating hormone. I'm certain it isn't "love" as for millenia humans have been proving quite well that a man who doesn't love a woman is still more than capable of getting her pregnant. And on top of that, scientists have successfully fertilized eggs with other eggs. The procedure still isn't ready for human use, but such advances are in the works. Is this all you've got or is there...
The Mathematics of Gay Marriage
In mathematics which is another core area of science, I used what is called the principle of commutativity and idepotency. Commutativity in mathematics is simply the arrangement of numbers or arrangement of letters in which the way you arrange them don’t matter. For example, if you say A + B in mathematics you are going to have B + A. For example, if I say two plus three it will give five. If I start from three, I say three plus two it also give you five showing that two plus three and three plus two are commutative because they gave the same results. That shows that A + B will give you B + A, you see that there is a change. In A + B, A started the journey while in B + A, B started the journey. If we use A as a man and use B as a woman we are going to have B + A that is woman and man showing that there is a reaction. A + B reacted, they interchanged and gave us B + A showing that commutativity obeys that a man should not marry a man and a woman should not marry a woman. If you use idempotency, it’s a reaction in mathematics where A + A = A. Actually in abstract algebra, A + A =2A but we are less concerned with the numerical value two. We are more less concerned with the symbols A, you find out that A + A will give you A showing that the whole thing goes unchanged. It didn’t change unlike commutativity A + B give B + A there is a change. A started the journey in commutativity and A + B gave us B + A and B started the journey after the equality sign. But in the case of idempotency A + A will give you A showing that it goes unreacted. You started with A and you meet A ,the final result is A. Showing that a man meeting a man A + A will produce a man there is no reaction, it goes unreacted and in chemical engineering you have to send the material back to the reactor for the action to be carried out again showing that it goes unreacted. That is how mathematics has shown that gay marriage is wrong because commutativity proves that gay marriage is wrong. Idempotency also proves that gay marriage is wrong. So these are the principles I have used to prove gay marriage wrong in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and by the grace of God I am the only one that has proved this in the whole world.
Alright, Chibi, that just doesn't make any fucking sense. These equations have nothing to do with human sexuality or morality or really anything. The commutative property only means that sums or products are not dependent on the order of the terms or factors. It just doesn't even apply to the discussion. Nor does idempotency, for that matter. You're just making shit up to try and sound smart.[/snark]
From this point on in the article, Amalaha begins to continuously pat himself on the back for being so scientific and smart and chosen by God. He claims that this research has made him highly respected among Nigerian scientists, and that he aspires to, on the basis of this work, earn a Nobel Prize. He laments that his work has not been published internationally because he hasn't the money to do it, and I really think he doesn't realize that if his work was in fact published, the scientific community would tear it apart completely and utterly in peer review.
Nigeria has been among the worst offenders in the world when it comes to homophobia, making even Putin's recent criminalization of homosexuality pale in comparison. Now, thanks to Mr. Amalaha, they have a "scientific" basis for their abuse. The dark continent just got a little scarier.