-"clearly goes against our physical designs" - So do a lot of other things, but we still accept them. Homosexuality, I believe, is condemned by the majority of society because it is specifically condemned in religious texts as an abomination.
That is some serious hate, and it doesn't only come from our understanding of human anatomy. It couldn't.
The only reason one can find to justify hating homosexuals lies in religious texts.
do you really think the only reason there are prohibitions against homosexuality in human society is religion? take a look around and you'll realize just how ridiculous that sounds. the family unit is an integral part of every advanced society and there is no place in that unit for homosexuality. father, mother, children - that is the basis of most every society. it is simple biology turned into a sociological imperative. in a species with an incredibly long childhood, it provides the stability and protection needed to raise our young. it is a grouping that satisfies all the necessities to continue our existence.
some folks may try to get us to believe that homosexuality is normal, but, even though it occurs elsewhere in nature, it is an aberration wherever it occurs. it is and should be tolerated within just societies, as any other personal choice or compulsion that does no harm, but it goes against the best interests of the species and cannot be considered
normal. as with anything that might be considered abnormal, it is bound to fuel disgust, anger and hatred, no matter what the predominant religion may say.
why is it you find it so difficult to understand the simple "ew" factor that drives so much homophobia independent of religion? as a straight male who has had maybe a dozen openly gay acquaintances over the years, i can understand it. it is something that i merely push to the back of my brain and ignore, along with a host of other petty biases. there are a lot of folks, though, who refuse to simply ignore their prejudices and dwell on them instead. this is the origin of homophobia, not the religious texts that only mirror the minds of those it was written for.
-What is the problem with getting rid of every false justification we observe that people can come up with for their actions, including ones that originate from a persons faith?
what's wrong with it is that it ignores the real cause of those actions. it's like popping mints all day to hide your bad breath, but ignoring the rotting teeth and gums that are the cause of the stench. by scapegoating religion, you are giving a pass to the avarice, envy and hatred that motivate the engineers of the world's atrocities. you are denying all that is positive in the philosophies of the world's religions and simply looking for the easiest place to lay the blame.
-I don't support a "Stalinist Soviet Union" type atheistic society, and you know that.
-We are in agreement that Christianity has shaped the US we live in, and organized religion as a whole has shaped society and civilization at large. This has no bearing on anything though, and I believe the good things you can learn from any religion you can attain through other means, no hate or belief in magic required.
of course you don't support those great mass murderers, but those are the examples that come to mind when you speak of atheist societies. it's simply because religion is so deeply ingrained in the human psyche and the only way for a society to rid itself of it, at least in the short run, is through force. people just need
something greater than themselves to believe in. if it isn't a god, it will be a man or an ideal. yes the human mind is quite capable of coming to the best conclusions independent of religion, but does he? the individual is quite capable of reasoning through to find the virtuous, but this is a world of mobs and masses and they are moved by more primitive urges. it is naive to believe that the ignorant mob will eschew its tendency toward force, simply because it is in the best interests of society.
you'll keep on pointing out all of these flaws within religion and i'll keep on pointing out that these are the flaws of man. you simply cannot consider religion independent of the societies within which it exists. the ignorance and atrocities you blame on religion are seen to be just as prevalent in its absence. they are the sins of man, not the sins of his invention. you rag on this blind faith as if it were some monster, yet you claim to
believe that all this can be achieved through a more scientific method. you assert your
faith in science much as a christian or a muslim asserts his
faith in the laws of his creed and you see no similarity. you understand so little of the science you adore and have watched as theory after theory is proven wrong and replaced by some other, but still your
faith remains unshaken. we have watched through the ages as religion has changed, taking into account the changing attitudes and understandings of its participants, but still you claim that it is incapable of evolving.
i've said it before and i'll say it again - religion may eventually lose its massive popularity and i hope it does, but it will probably never disappear. it offers an absolute in a world of insecurity and man is not quite so advanced as you would like to believe him nor will he most likely ever be. it is a means of ethical education and control and, face it, there are elements of every society that need such control.