The following is an excerpt from an article that ran in todays Minneapolis Star-Tribute. The article really articulated the feelings that I have had about organized religion since I was about 14 or 15.
Allyson Leonard, 24, of Bloomfield, N.J., decries what she terms “groupthink mentality” and half-jokingly tells people she attended Roman Catholic schools for 14 years to learn she has no faith at all in organized religion.
Her doubts began at age 10 when she was told people who didn’t attend Mass were barred from heaven. She immediately thought of “Pop,” her beloved grandfather.
“You’re telling me that he’s going to hell because he doesn’t go to Mass on Sundays?” she remembers asking.
Leonard, a publicist who works in New York City, came to see religion as “death insurance.” She’s not willing to pay the premiums.
“I don’t worry about it,” she said. “I look at it and say, ‘OK, I know I’m living the best life I can here and now. If nothing happens after I die, fine.
“I just don’t see the point of planning for something I don’t know exists.”
Nov. 25, 2003, Newhouse News Service