[tips] Re: Deities "R" Us - tangental

[Drnanjo]

The following post is sure to provoke someone's wrath, but I am going to share these thoughts anyway. I was raised Catholic but no longer practice and consider myself to be not religious.   1) The first time I stopped attending church I simply decided that it was boring and I was getting nothing out of it at all. I also felt that in the absence of any kind of evidence the whole afterlife thing was up for grabs and I wasn't going to hold my breath about it. That was when I was 15. I attend sporadically for the next two years, giving it up finally and permanently when I was in college.   2) Once we get past the boredom aspect, the main reason I no longer practice my native faith, and am not particularly drawn to any other, is because most world religions appear to be focused in large part on the control of sexuality and appear to promote a (sometimes thinly veiled) negative attitude towards sex. Starting with the absurd views of the Catholic Church about consensual sexual activity between adults and contraception, I just don't know why any God would care who you have sex with as long as you are not raping, seducing children or those incapable of consent, etc.    3) Related to #2, the subjugation of women, the suppression of their sexuality and general blame of women for all manner of evil, doctrine that they are inferior etc seems to be a part of most major religions also.   4) And then of course it appears that in all cultures, at some time or other, people have used religion as an excuse to harm, oppress and kill each other (someone's recent post - when good people do bad things, it's religion.)   5) I've been amused by how many of my formerly non-religious friends decided to get religion again when they had children. I can't get my head around the idea that you can't raise a child to be a decent person without religion.   Well that's my rant for the week. I actually don't know why I felt compelled to share these thoughts. I don't think it's related to my being a psychologist, I think I would have grown up to feel this way about the matter regardless of my career choice. Perhaps it is more related to my gender/sex. I was just not going to adopt any system of believe that I found at heart to be demeaning and negative about women and sex.   Nancy Melucci Long Beach City College Long Beach CA --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english