General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why are so many Christians so obsessed with homosexuality? [View all]lunatica
(53,410 posts)The word phobia has been watered down a lot in it's overuse so that it now seems to be a mild thing that is something one chooses to feel. Phobias are about irrational fears. It's also not just one religion or belief system. But religions do seem to exploit these fears, though not all do.
I'll bet that fear is underlying all forms of knee jerk reactions. Why do men claim women are inferior? Because they fear powerful women, and they fear that which attracts them because it has some sort of power over them that they can't control. They can't just 'turn it off'. I think there might be some deeply buried kind of attraction to same sex people and the thought of it makes them take their religious teachings seriously enough to fill them with terror at 'being caught' by God. I think most so-called religious people's feelings are the same as when they were children. Fearful of ever lasting hell and punishment. Those feelings are many times too powerful to be able to examine rationally. So they're stuck at their childhood levels of faith and fear.
I believe we're all attracted in some way to people of our own sex, even if it falls under the description of envy of their beauty. Most of us (at least I think it is most of us) can deal with such feelings quite easily. We can tell the difference between sexual attraction and other kinds of attractions.