One of the main features of religion is virulent opposition to homosexuality. In your view, why are religions so against homosexuality.
Leviticus 20:13
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abonimation, they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them
*King James Version
Homosexuals cannot produce the next generation of believers.
I would say that’s not a feature of “religion” itself. Not even “Christianity” specifically. It’s certain religions. A lot of the Christian religions, but not all of them. As well as a few others.
The way I see it a lot of these religions work on fear. They scare people into giving their 10% and getting converts to do the same. To scare people into giving you money you need a bad guy. The devil’s all well and good as a general bad guy these days, but today you can’t “see” him. Back in the day you had witches you could lay your eyes on. You had “possessed” people before anti-psychotics were a thing. You had some scary stuff you could look at and say, “There he is! That’s the devil’s work!” And that’s what scared people into staying in line. Today most people don’t buy that magic mumbo-jumbo any more. But they still need to see the devil to be afraid of him. The churches need someone they can point at, someone who scares the parishioners, someone they actually believe in to say, “THERE is the devil’s influence!” So, they choose a “bad guy” from the hat, paint him up with a Hitler mustache, make him look good and mean and say, “There he is!” Most religious people who absolutely hate gay people don’t actually know any, or any that they are aware of, anyway. And they’re told not to associate with any they know of for fear they will “lead you astray”. That’s so they don’t get to know anyone who disagrees with them lest the illusion of them being the ultimate evil fade. It’s just a way to point to the devil to keep their people in line.
Do you feel that religions have a dislike of sex but unfortunately for religious people sex is necessary for reproduction. In view of this religious people feel sex should never be for pleasure and only for reproduction. Gay people can’t reproduce and can only have sex for pleasure which religious people resent. Is this a major reason why religions oppose homosexuality.
I don’t think it’s a major reason, no. It’s definitely an excuse they use to justify their opposition. But that excuse doesn’t hold up when they have no problem whatsoever with a husband and wife having sex even when they are incapable of having kids.
Is there a religion that promotes their members to have as many babies as possible? Seems like that religion would, over time, become the most populous religion. Of course, they would need more doctrine than that alone. They would also need a doctrinal mechanism to insure that those babies grew up to be faithful members of the religion.
Sex itself is an integral part of Life as we know it. It is a VERY powerful influence in our lives. Getting control over or diminishing the influence of sex in human’s lives would be in the interests of the developers and leaders of a given religion. Religions very often seem to serve a function of mass influence over the behavior of their members.
Is there a religion that promotes their members to have as many babies as possible?
Not sure if this is being funny, or if you forget the “every sperm is sacred” song.
Richard Carrier posits that the inclusion of women in decision making and general care of the community, as well as more peaceful men, helped Christianity survive some brutal centuries while other minor cults were sending off their men to war and not educating their women. Then of course the idea of “give me a boy until 7 years old, and I will have the man”. A lot harder to do that now with an internet.
It is my understanding that there are many religions that promote having as many babies as possible, though I don’t know that from personal experience. I believe it is a general understanding in Catholicism that you should have a large family, though I don’t think their rules are specifically pushy about it.
It’s kind of hard to quantify because religious doctrines often have 2 sets of rules. One is the things that the church says absolutely, such as “Birth control is bad and you should never, ever use it”. The other is what the members overwhelmingly believe the church to be saying, which is never specifically stated by the hierarchy, but neither is it ever corrected by the hierarchy. Much of what a parishioner learns about how one is supposed to adhere to a given belief system comes from the pews, not the pulpit.
I have heard the partial quote from Genesis, “Go forth and multiply” spoken of like it were a commandment from God which still applied today, though I don’t remember where or the specific context.
Do you feel that religions have a dislike of sex but unfortunately for religious people sex is necessary for reproduction. In view of this religious people feel sex should never be for pleasure and only for reproduction. Gay people can’t reproduce and can only have sex for pleasure which religious people resent. Is this a major reason why religions oppose homosexuality.I think it’s a misconception that religion is anti-sex, anti-pleasure. Religions are against sexual behavior that is outside of their moral framework — which probably were a necessary response to whatever the conditions were in that time and place the religion developed.
The framework might not make sense today of course. Not to mention the rules can’t be enforced as much, so people often deviate quite a bit.
Speaking of molding a child til age 7 and thus setting the template for the man he would be, there is a Bible verse I recall. “Bring up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” or something like that.
If there really is a developmental age by which time the template for the adult is achieved, we should probably find out. And consider what the common early experiences are, and thus we could be able to account for the type of adults that would be coming of age. (I guess I am a technocrat at heart.)
Have you heard of ACES? It’s a system for predicting adult dysfunction. I think the internet has changed those old rules.
Do you feel that religions need an out group to hate and vilify and gays serve as a convenient out group.
I think that is a tactic that tends to form in any social group, religious or otherwise, usually occurring initially with a leader prompting and encouraging opposition to some “outsider”, so as to gain cohesion and passion amongst his following.
e.g., T rump and his alt-righters are currently doing it most obviously against immigrants.