June 27th 2008
Abandoning religion for morality
The Star Tribune’s June 25 report of the problems Catholic members of the GLBT community are having with the Catholic Church reminded me of the similar situation (over birth control) that led me to reasoning my way out of religion and into atheism. At some point reality requires that one abandon religion in favor of morality.
St. Joan of Arc’s priests and members are making a heroic effort to retain their Catholic beliefs along with their humanity and it isn’t working. Reading about their struggle reminds me of women who can’t bring themselves to leave their abusive husbands, thinking they need those men, hoping they will change, and telling themselves the abuse is their own fault for not being submissive enough.
But these psychologically and doctrinally abused Catholics, like abused women, don’t need their abuser. They don’t need the Catholic Church or any other church. They don’t need religion. It causes problems but solves none. It offers no truths, only mythology about an imagined supernatural realm with useless gods and irrational directives that vary widely from people to people and place to place and time to time.
The real world we atheists inhabit has no need for the delusional doctrines put out by religions, especially those that for some reason seem pathologically obsessed with sex, sexuality, reproductive matters, and gender roles. As long as no one is being hurt or exploited, it doesn’t matter to us what people do about their sexuality or with whom.
There is a fine solution to the problem these distressed GLBT folks face, and it is to join the happily religion-free members of the human family. They will find that to live without god beliefs is not only intellectually stimulating, it allows them to find their own purpose and have the satisfaction of being responsible for their own lives. It is liberating and life affirming as nothing else can be.
—M.A.C., Minneapolis
