Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'homosexuality'

Homophobic/Homoloving Pastors

September 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Daily Devolutions, Morality

Despite the consistent and regular linkage between gay bashing ministers and politicians who are themselves gay, I have never given much thought to the psychology (often related to sexual abuse during childhood) underlying this linkage.  Surely there is the hypocrisy, but this is description and not explanation.
Over at Slate, Christopher Hitchens has written about the [...]

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The Nature of “Natural”: Foucault and Wittgenstein

July 14th, 2010 · No Comments · Emotions, Evolution, Methodology, Morality, Power

In my last two posts (The “Sin” of Sodomy and “Natural Moral Law“), I have been considering the naturalness of sexual physiologies and preferences.  By serendipitous accident, yesterday I read Bob Plant’s (2006) article, “The Confessing Animal in Foucault and Wittgenstein,” in which he observes that these famous philosophers are connected by their shared suspicion [...]

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The “Sin” of Sodomy and Demographic Imperatives

July 13th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Ecology, Economy, Evolutionary Adaptation, History, Morality, Power, Ritual

When attempting to determine whether something is “natural ” (vis-a-vis yesterday’s post on Catholicism and homosexuality) one good way of investigating the issue is to use the genealogical method.  So far as I can tell, there are no hunter-gatherer or pre-Neolithic societies that had taboos against homosexuality.  We can therefore trace the history of the [...]

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Professor Condemns Homosexuality on Basis of “Natural Moral Law”

July 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Axial Age, Ecology, Evolution, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Morality, Philosophy

Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers discusses the case of a professor — teaching at a public university — who presented his Catholic views, disguised as philosophy, on homosexuality to his students.  One student complained to the administration, calling the professor’s position “hate speech.”  PZ Myers disagrees and calls it “stupid speech.”  Myers then proceeds to [...]

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Exorcising Autistics and Gays

June 11th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age, Cognition, Daily Devolutions, Magic, Ritual

Evangelicals love their demons — which they claim to see or sense in just about everything bad that happens.  All it takes is some exorcism or “casting out” and all will be well.
As I have mentioned in several previous posts, one of autism’s effects is a lack of “theory of mind.”  This in turn renders [...]

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