homophobia meme

[gusl]

I'd like to understand the homophobia meme / anti-homosexuality morality. How did it arise? Is the "western homophobia" from the same origin as Muslim homophobia?

Memes about religion, morality, diets, etc have coevolved with our species, and are far from "random" (whatever that would mean): they follow definite patterns. For instance, dietary memes ensure that people eat together, and thus become friends, helping each others' genetic potential. (this arguments sounds weak, though)

Pinker's "The Mind Works" is a treasure-trove of such arguments, and a delightful read, even though he's wrong in the one or two places that I know something about. But I could dedicate my professional life to his reference page.

Comments

[trufflesniffer.livejournal.com]

Is the "western homophobia" from the same origin as Muslim homophobia?

I think so, but it's probably the other way round, considering the fact Islam is derived from Christianity.

I think homophobia in Abrahamic faiths probably arises because the religions have been most successful at converting and retaining followers when they've managed to establish a kind of 'metaphysical monopoly' on human sexuality. This allows religious beliefs to be 'transmitted' as 'meme-lines' in parallel to 'germ-lines' - i.e. from parents to children.

What I mean is, Abrahamic faiths all seem to place stringent criteria on how one is to 'legitimately' experience sexual pleasure, such that it becomes 'sinful' to enjoy sexual activity except in a pious monogamy - i.e. those conditions most likely to result in the generation of more followers.
Where the metaphysical propositions of Abrahamic faiths exploit human psychology is interesting: As well as offering the infinite otherworldly pleasures of heaven/paradise to followers, it also acts to ensure that the greatest 'this-worldly' pleasure in the universe - the human orgasm - is only to be 'legitimately' enjoyed by pious believers who create more pious believers!
Part of this 'monopolizing' strategy involves demonizing (associating with punishments) all other roots to achieving orgasm - including masturbation and homosexual intercourse - which don't result in the creation of more pious believers.


If one likes to think of these cultural beliefs as memes, it's worth comparing the 'homophobic, anti-masturbation, anti-pre-marital-sex' Christian meme, with a rival 'sexually liberal' Christian meme, which doesn't act so as to monopolise sexual pleasure to the same extent.
I think, given an identical base of followers, the more sexually monopolistic 'allele' will reproduce itself at a much faster rate than the less oppressive version.
That's my theory, anyway!

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I think, given an identical base of followers, the more sexually monopolistic 'allele' will reproduce itself at a much faster rate than the less oppressive version.

...then you have to explain why a similar selection didn't apply to eliminating homosexuality altogether.

I mean, AFAIK, the standard explanation is that homosexuals make their kin genetically more successful. So parents with a gene that promotes a small chance of homosexuality will have more descendants.

Would memetic population selection be faster than the above genetic selection? It seems unlikely.

[trufflesniffer.livejournal.com]

I think the difference there is that evolution is probabilistic, whereas the metaphysical systems used by Abrahamic religions are 'heuristic'. A moral code doesn't say "It's 98% sinful to engage in homosexuality", it says "It's absolutely sinful to engage in homosexuality."
Memes, in general, don't seem to be able to 'reproduce' easily unless they're simple, and they're not usually simple unless they're unequivocal.