(February 13, 2015 at 4:43 am)robvalue Wrote: The idea of atheism (and homosexuality) being illegal both makes me laugh and makes me incredibly sad. It's like... how can that possibly even work? The scariest thing is how recent it was. And how many people today who think they are shocked by it would have just gone along with it back then? A lot.
Homosexuality has a very different history from atheism. In pre-Christian Europe, there was often no problem at all with homosexuality. The ancient Greeks and Romans (before Rome converted to Christianity) were totally fine with it. But they were not fine with denying the gods of the state.
The problem that people have had with homosexuality is religiously motivated. Christianity condemns it, and so where Christianity dominated, it was condemned. (Christianity is not alone in this, but not all religions have condemned it, as the example of the ancient Greeks and Romans proves.)
Of course, there are always some who go against the official teachings, and some Christians ignore the Bible's prohibition on homosexuality, just like most of them ignore the prohibition on blended fabrics:
- Deuteronomy 22:11 Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
