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[–]Three_oneFourWanted for thought crimes in countless ideologies 23 insightful - 1 fun23 insightful - 0 fun24 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Religion needs a way to keep its members thinking about it. If it doesn't, the religion will die. One way to keep people thinking about the religion, thus keeping the religion alive, is to have them go to war against some group of people. Psychologically, what this does is it makes the members invested. If they do these things that would otherwise be attrocities, then they must stick with the religion to make sure that they have the moral high ground. "I killed this man, which would normally make me a murderer, but since God told me to do it, this is OK." If God is not real, then it is not OK and the person thinking this would be a murderer. This makes the murderer hold tight to their beliefs so that they can stay morally correct.

It doesn't always have to be quite that extreme, but if religious members can be brought to do bad or even embarrasing things on just about any level, then they'll want to stay with the religion to justify their actions.

Defining this "other" to target for war is an important step to make sure you don't harm too many of your own religion's followers. You try to pick something that the majority of the followers do not do, that way they aren't discouraged from the religion due to liking something against the doctrine, but you need a large or powerful enough group to last a while, otherwise you'll just have to do this again in 5 minutes. Nationality is a common way to do this, just say that whatever nearby nation needs to be destroyed and you've got it.

But there are also bonus points if you can choose some group that you or your followers don't like. For example, people who do something "icky" or otherwise weird. One might say, if people do something rather queer by your standards? Homosexuality was an easy choice because we're a spread out minority that will be hard to squash because we're everywhere, most religious (well, most of any group) people are not homosexual and have little to no experience with homosexuals or homosexuality, and bias can easily be inserted to mark it as "icky" for that bonus hatred.

Now you've got your followers oppressing a group and doing horrible things ranging from rude remarks to first degree murder. The goal was never to get rid of us, we were just an easy scapegoat to keep the sheep in line all the way in ancient times.

They hate us only because they were told to by their cult leaders and the leaders only care because they need to keep their sheeple doing awful and immoral things so that they gain a psychological reliance on their faith to prevent insanity setting in as they realize what attrocities they've committed in the name of a false god. They're obsessed with us because we fight back, and we gain support. We defy them by refusing to die out so we make a good, long lasting target. If they were to kill all of us, they would likely move on to foreigners or people of whatever random race each religion chooses.

[–]ShotTopic 20 insightful - 1 fun20 insightful - 0 fun21 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Religions that focus on procreation thrive and spread (via generations upon generations of children being raised in that religion).

[–]AlexisK 13 insightful - 1 fun13 insightful - 0 fun14 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

All main religious books are condeming homosexuality in one or another way, especially Quran.

[–]JulienMayfair 10 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 0 fun11 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Sex is a powerful human drive. Religions try to harness and channel that drive, and insofar as they do that, they turn a certain arrangement into the right way to do it, making everything else the wrong way.

People like to be told that the way they are doing something is the right way. Any teacher knows this as well as the fact that a large percentage of the human population wants to be told what to do. They find the freedom of choices frightening.

Telling people that homosexuality is wrong is really telling heterosexuals that heterosexuality is right.

[–]Seahorse 9 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Cause they marry at like 18, usually complete virgins (first kiss ever is on wedding day), not hanging out with opposite sex without chaperones until then and their job is to pump out babies.

I'd hate us too.

[–]lazy-summer-godSuper Gay 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Religions and cults require fear to work. There need to be groups of people that are the "clear enemy." Minorities are easy to pick up, just like made up fallen angels are.

[–]ThrowMeAway2879 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You have

  • A hidden minority (people don't know that the new anti-sodomy law is going to get Jimmy down the street killed)
  • A very small minority (less power by sheer numerical disadvantage alone)
  • A minority spread somewhat evenly throughout the population (similar to above, no localized power, no "strongholds", dependent and integrated with their majority peers)
  • An easily demonized minority ("they'll turn your children/seduce your sons/daughters!")
  • A minority you can subject to salacious moral outrage ("they lick each other's bums!", "sex is only for procreation!")

And with gays and lesbians you get all of that in one. What a deal! If you need a scapegoat for the newest punishment from God (read: plague, earthquake, whatever disaster happened last), you can point at them. Have a firebrand preacher yell to the masses that the toleration of this sinful behavior has brought the wrath of god onto the whole city. If you eradicate these sinners god will again smile on the good and righteous people of [insert whatever medieval hellhole you exist in].

Then you kill a bunch of them and go back to counting your tax bounty and donations from your god-fearing subjects. Keep up occasional persecutions, intensify as needed if you need to shore up your rule.

A playbook as old as time, it's just the details that vary. Currently there's a bit of a lull (in the west), thank god, but don't think religious fanatics of all sorts wouldn't go right back to it, if they could. And so the obsession simmers for future use.

[–]jim_steak 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

People who grow up in religious households are forced from a young age to obey a confusing, contradictory set of rules that forces them over and over to do things they don't want to do, but that they have to do to get love and support from their parents and community. For example, women who are forced to see themselves as sexualized and subservient beings to men, or young boys who go through the trauma of unnecessary circumcision. They are unable to articulate their anger and fear about these aspects of their life to the people who are supposed to support them, because those are the same people who are harming them. The very act of questioning these teachings is sinful and wrong - so instead they push their anger and fear into their unconscious. Gay people are one of many safe outlets for these buried feelings, which is why homophobic sentiment is so irrational: it's actually the buried feelings of rage these people hold against their parents. Homophobic peoples' fear of gay people is their own displaced fear of the trauma that was done to them, which is why so many homophobic arguments (indoctrination of children, child molestation, forcing beliefs onto others) are things that religious institutions are actually doing every day.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It becomes an easy way to measure their own virtue. They may all be sinners who occasionally lie, cheat, verbally abuse, judge, lust, and hurt other people, but at least they aren't one of those "dirty homosexuals." At least they aren't one of those drug addicts, prostitutes, homeless people, degenerate hedonists, transsexuals, porn-purveyors, etc. They can make their own failings and character flaws seem small by holding them up to the supposed "flaws" of others, and therefore, comfort themselves with the knowledge that they might be "worthy" and "good enough" for God's unconditional love. They credit themselves as "working hard" for their virtue, even though much of their "virtue" might stem from a stable, loving, untraumatic upbringing that never left them with the kind of inner turmoil only addiction could sooth. Most of them will never experience same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, and take that to be a sign of their own moral fortitude. With their own "sexual failings," they can either justify them if they fall within the approved structure of their religion (marital rape, having more children than they can realistically invest in) or they can ask forgiveness each time they "slip up" (infidelity, porn usage, lustful thoughts). They will never have to face the agonizing decision of choosing between a lifetime of lonely celibacy, a hollow, inauthentic marriage, or eternal damnation, but they will gladly judge those of us who do.

In order to remain in this delusion of "self-earned virtue," they must ignore all biological and experiential variance, they must look at God and wholeness as a trophy to be won for good behavior. They must look at the world through the dualistic lens of good and evil, saint and sinner, Heaven and Hell. They must tell themselves that when their Prodigal Brother returns home, Dad is going to beat his ass. They must ignore their own brokenness, which keeps them from believing they might be lovable even if they aren't entirely "good."

Religion is often just a substitute for genuine spirituality. As my favorite spiritual writer puts it:

"Many educated and sophisticated people are not willing to submit to indirect, subversive, and intuitive knowing, which is probably why they rely far too much on external law and ritual behavior to achieve their spiritual purposes. They know nothing else feels objective and solid. Intuitive truth, that inner whole-making instinct, just feels too much like 'our own thoughts and feelings,' and most of us are not willing to call this 'God,' even when that voice prompts us toward compassion instead of hatred, forgiveness instead of resentment, generosity instead of stinginess, bigness instead of pettiness."