a purple flower

Yes, religion is a major reason, I’d agree.

I heard an interesting story recently, apparently a young boy asked Pope Francis if his father, who was an atheist and had recently died, was in heaven or in hell. He did this at some sort of public forum where many were in attendance. The Pope turned the question over to the crowd, instead of delivering the bad news that his religions faith purports, which is that those who don’t believe end up in hell. The crowds opinion was that since the boys father was a “good man who despite being an atheist had all his children baptized into the Catholic faith”, god just had to be willing to bend the rules a bit to allow the boys father into heaven.

So there you have it. Instead of giving the answer his faith has preached for centuries, which is that the non-believer who dies ends up in hell, Pope Frank skillfully redirected the question to others who also didn’t wish to break the boys heart. Yet in other situations, these people will be more than happy to preach hell, fire and brimstone for those who don’t believe. Ooooohhhhh, scary stuff.

Interesting how religion can be so rigid and yet so flexible depending on the situation. I grew up with the threat of eternal damnation if I didn’t tie my shoes properly, and to this day, I still fear life in a great beyond full of drooling demons with pitchforks, even though my rational mind chuckles at this notion. Religion is a tool of control and little else.