College can be a time to lose religion, gain independence

The new semester brings change to all students on campus as they prepare themselves for new knowledge and new experiences. Each individual studies through a unique curriculum he or she chooses in order to create the future most suitable for himself or herself.

One could never hope to complete this dialectical journey without the most vital freedom for full development as a human – freedom of the mind.

The soul craves indulgence in one's own tastes, thoughts, judgments and dreams. And nothing could stifle this independence quite like the suffocating, law-driven harness of religion.

The Church offers absolute truth and security at the expense of authority over one's own life choices, a price so outrageous it should never reach the bargaining table.

Many sects forbid sexual promiscuity, homosexual practices or any seditious strides towards personal pleasure.

This leaves countless conflicted humans riding swells of guilt every week until they renew their limited "pious" aspirations on Sunday morning.

How bland a life in which one's purpose is static and so disagreeable.

Education has a negative correlation with religiosity, as the pool becomes less littered with dissonant relics of irrationality as one travels deeper into academia.

This could mean religion prevents people from achieving higher learning, or that religious ideas sit less comfortably with people disposed to successful pursuits of knowledge. Regardless, religious influence has no positive aid to offer for properly developing one's mind.

Fretful followers will say talking to their god can help students through the difficulties and conflicts of compounding knowledge.

I've personally found warmth and stress relief from talking to my cat and losing religion, which proves either religion is false, my cat is the Lord, or comfort is no measure of veracity.

Real knowledge comes from analyzing the information available with an unprejudiced open mind, not from interpreting vague feelings strictly by a mostly unappealing guidebook.

Religion's only claim to accuracy or allure – comfort – becomes its direct enemy amidst the sundry pleasure and fresh opportunity in independent college life.

Why would anyone want to maintain a limited mind before limitless personalized knowledge and sweet, shameless vice?

An in-depth study of Victorian literature can enthrall far more than religious devotion can, and one can only fully appreciate the joys of subverting the campus police when removed from any divine guilt.

Even those who prefer moral pursuits are better suited to reach their potential without filtering their accepted morality through a nonsensical doctrine.

Love for one's family members should be isolated and honest, not forced through abuse to honor the Torah's Ten Commandments.

Religion only serves to repress one's passions, whether moral or immoral, with a cloud of uncertain servility to a totalitarian thought police.

An independent mind allows full indulgence in one's passions and tastes and no forced second-guessing of a natural desire.

No religious security beats the constant thrill of being the highest and only authority you regard in making every decision.

How else can you know which kind of future you want or how you stand on ambiguous moral issues?

Career paths in college should be created with no appeals to piety, and one's stance on sexual behavior should not depend upon what a book, preacher or guided revelation commands.

The freedom to be oneself, maintain an open mind and sanction one's own morality cannot be oversold.

For a college student, independence should be genuine and unrestrained to allow every bit of fun and education as possible.

This means looking past Christian rock to some more enjoyable music selections.

In this environment religion hurts its followers more than its observers, as dogmas shield them from the broadest spectrum of experience, passion and development.

While this article may sound flippant toward religion, its followers primary motivation in life, let the great majority of these followers consider how flippantly they have accepted ancient, poorly investigated claims of truth on such critically important issues.

Losing one's religion is a difficult decision that involves brief but significant conflict and suffering, while holding one's religion gives a lifetime of conflicted, prescribed passions and misunderstood suffering.

The walk of independence is in no way a universal remedy of self-satisfaction, but it opens doors grander and more numerous than a religious life ever will.