...that's exactly what the Pope says too.  Guess for once science and the church are in accord eh?

That kind of talk is very popular with folks with a "traditional family values" agenda.  It utterly ignores the fact that plenty of straight people fall in love but still choose not to procreate, or that elderly straight people (no longer capable of reproducing) still fall in love or, of course, that people of the same sex fall in love.

It's not new though.  For centuries a lot of scientists (influenced by socio-religious agendas) had a great deal of difficulty coping with the fact that many animals indulge in non-procreative sexual behaviors and these researchers often either glossed over observations of such behavior or tried to come up with twisted logic to try and frame it in a reproductive context.

Some cultural biases are alive and well.

Wes Tattinger

I work as a counselor and am appalled by the aggresive ignorance and intolerance of other people.  By Good Morning America not even mentioning how the science of desire applies to GLBT folks they are feeding into the old conspiracy of keeping us quiet and invisible.  Saying that sexual activities are for reproductive purposes only speaks of their agenda.  Sex has always occured for a variety of reasons.  To use the very tired argument that living things only have sex for reproductive purposes ignores the reality of homosexual activities and couplings in the animal kingdom.  The book Biological Exuberance does a fine job of pointing out how homosexuality is a widespread part of nature.  And yes, old folks have sex and heterosexuals have sex for non-reproductive purposes all the time.  Reproductive sex is all well and good but isn't that contributing to problems of overpopulation among humans in many parts of the world.  I believe there is a reason that "nature" has favored homosexuality among humans and other kinds of animals.  People need to quit second-guessing the wisdom of nature.  Attacking homosexuality is unnatural.

or misquoted by people to generalize about human behaviour (remeber eugenics and how it was used to justify the Nazi atrocities).  Human beings are extremely complex animals.  I don't think we have even come close to fully understand human behaviour, perhaps we never will.  That is why discussions like this one are laughable.  Human re-production and the emotion of love are quite often separate.  I would hazard to guess that the majority of human beings that have been born have been a result of sex that did not involve love.  It was only until fairly recently that straight couples married because of love, it used to be for economic reasons or cultural traditions. 

Cheers

JBE