No Restraint

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I rather gather that so many atheists think of religion as a badly restraining thing. Religion is just so many do nots. In fact many taboos are being removed these days. Do you think that is a good thing, bearing in mind it is not always possible to be choosy as to which taboos go?

I don't think of religion as restraining, unless it is used as a political tool to justify authoritarian social policies. Some forms of religion are actually very disinhibiting. Take Catholicism for example, with its emphasis on absolution. Confess your sins, say ten Hail Marys, and the highest moral authority in the universe lets you get away with rape and murder.

I believe this is why so many prison inmates find religion in jail. It allows them to convince themselves that they've succumbed to the influence of the devil, which is much easier than to acknowledge "I have messed up, badly, and I have to live with this horrible guilt for the rest of my life". Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people shouldn't ever be forgiven by society. But I doubt that this clean slate approach helps people to accept their guilt and responsibility and learn from past mistakes. On the contrary. It is way too easy to "give in to the devil" again and again, telling oneself that it happens to everyone, that we're all sinners etc., and seek out a clergyman for divine absolution afterwards.

"The devil made me do it" is a cop-out. I think people are more inclined to be at their best behavior without belief in satanic mind control and divine forgiveness, and without believing that we're all morally deficient sinners to begin with (we're not, and this is a very insulting notion imho). I also think that life is a lot more precious and valuable without belief in an afterlife. People who accept their own mortality are less likely to throw their life away for some questionable cause, as well as less likely to take the lives of others because somebody told them "Deus vult".

Yes, religion has been a political tool throughout history. I can't help feeling that the more worldly power a religious movement has then the less effective in its original intent it becomes. A bigger cop out than the devil made me do it is God made me do it. Remember John Lennon.

I once read a book which had the suggestion people who seek forgiveness should be willing to pay for, or make good the damage they have done. How somebody like Myra Hindley could do that I cannot imagine.

I do think faith should be about life here and now. If we've got it right then that determines what will happen after death.