Jerry Monaco wrote:
>
>
> I do not think that because believers in the Great Father in the sky
> also believe that the He "favors the United States in world
> affairs" that such absurd beliefs should be attributed to
> religion.
I am skeptical that _any_ social/convictions are generated by religion; rather the relition/social beliefs/etc are all emergent from the complex of social relations within which individuals find themselves enmeshed. Homophobia can help explain the _intensity_ of the relgious belief of many, but but I am skeptical that either belief (the religious conviction or the homophobia) has a causal relztion to the other.
Someone someday will come up with a persuasive sociological explanation of 9/11 conspiracy theories, which clearly have nothing to do with known facts of 9/11, and yet I don't think they stem from individual pathologies.
Carrol