You don’t need me to tell you that religious people are more likely to be homophobic.

But what you might not have thought too hard about is why that should be.

Is it that religion makes people homophobic, or is it simply that religion attracts people who are conservative and/or authoritarian - people who also tend to be homophobic? Then again, ‘religion’ is a pretty broad church.

Is all religion linked to homophobia, or is it just specific types?And what about racism? Are religious people more likely to be rascist? And if not, why not? This is an important question because religion acts to strengthen group cohesion, and it also comes with a lot of moral rules.

Either of these could explain the link to homophobia. But most religions tend to be at least overtly anti-racist.

So if religious people are more racist, this is probably because the ‘group cohesion’ effect overrides the ‘moral censure’ effect.

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