In 1992, psychologist Charles W. Socarides founded the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), to help gay men and lesbians become straight through counseling and religious-based therapy. Though the organization has avoided taking political stands against homosexuality, it's advertising of triumphant individuals that have become heterosexual stir heated controversy. Implying that gay people ought to becomes straight understandably outrages gay activists. The problem, however, with arguing that people are born gay and will always be that way doesn't have any scientific basis. You can think that homosexuality is okay, or not okay, but you can rest assured there will never be a blood test for it.
Science has made great strides in recent decades, laying to rest old arguments and myths. But have we come to expect too much from science, asking it to answer every imaginable question, even moral ones? In THE NOBLE LIE, controversial science writer argues that scientists feel compelled to provide answers to the questions they're asked, even if they're not quite true, like when life begins or ends. (The facts Roe v. Wade and the Terri Schiavo case hinged on, to name only two notable examples.)
