Yup, I find in many otherwise rational people all reasoning faculties seem to evaporate when trying to have an unbiased conversation about this area today, kind of like a religion almost. The following paragraph from the paper pretty much sums up my experience. I just don't bother discussing any of it with anyone in person any more, it's tainted.
> one should note that, from an egalitarian perspective, differences are better tolerated if they reflect positively on a group that is perceived as underprivileged or oppressed (e.g., findings of higher verbal ability in females tend to be less controversial than findings of higher spatial and mathematical ability in males).
It's a shame because I think we would move forward faster as a society if it was easier to talk about these things openly without worrying about offending people... how can we overcome unfair biases in society if we do not investigate and understand them properly.
I'm quoting myself from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31595298:
> People see that "men and women are different" is used as justification for prejudice (like a person not getting a chance because people of the same sex did rarely have success previously). Which sucks and people feel its unfair. And when trying to conceptualize that unfairness into words, their contra opinion sometimes ends up being "so man and women must be equal" instead of "a persons sex does not justify prejudice".
Perhaps for the entire species we would need something else, such as Homo Ipsum Lorem?
Christianity, Catholicism in particular - perversion of human sexuality is one of its pillars. You can see this in their fight against reproductive rights and sexual minorities.