Russia says it will arrest openly gay tourists

[DeistPaladin]

And this is why religion is superfluous fluffy nonsense in some cases and horrible bigot-creating hate-filled awfulness in others.

Very nice way of putting it. Mind if I use that in the future when I'm talking about all the religious crap that clutters our view of the moral landscape?

This is why I'm opposed to people who claim a divine source for their backwards-ass morals, even if it is secular to begin with.

In a way, all religious edicts were "secular" to begin with.

Religion, like all other aspects of culture, is an outgrowth of humanity's efforts to understand their world and survive within it. For example, edicts on dietary requirements, making certain foods taboo, likely stemmed from people dying or getting sick after eating these foods.

People see rainbows or there's an earthquake or flood and we like to find reasons why the gods are doing this or that. "Just so" myths get told to explain the mysteries of the world and motives are attributed to the gods for events or calamities. Even today, when an earthquake, flood, fire, etc strike, preachers will invoke the gods of wrath and scapegoat some group or other as the cause of the anger of the gods.

The obsession that Yahweh has with homosexuality dovetails with the admonishments of how married heterosexuals should have sex. The rules to wait seven days after her period has ended has to do with making sure that the couple's sex is more likely to produce offspring. Apparently, the ancient Jews were obsessed with population growth, causing the odd rules and taboos to be written.