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Originally Posted by Sliver
Good points, but I think it goes beyond just saying abuse happens in the church and outside the church so it's a wash.
Isn't it possible the church attracts pedophiles? Again, if you live an areligious life, you don't submit yourself or your children to any leader in the same way you do if you belong to a religion. You don't tell a weird old virgin intimate details about your life and then have him tell you what to do to make yourself whole again. You don't have a concept of somebody ranking above you on a cosmic scale that can hold sway over your eternal soul. And if you're areligious you would never dream of putting your kids in a position of being with an authority figure who would not face legal consequences were he to abuse or assault them.
That parents defer authority and protection of their kids to an institution with such a track record of consequence-free abuse is actually psycho.
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I wasn't referring to anything as a wash.
This was all in response to the articles I posted stating that being religious increases life expectancy by 4 years.
There are obviously risks with organized religion. Data shows that the risks or organized religion are less than those of living a non-religious life. That won't deal with extremes obviously. For example living in a religion that forbades medical treatment lessons your life expectancy. That's not the norm though.
With Catholicism, specifically, the risk seems to originate from the practice of forcing priests to live a life of abstinence and isolation. You propose to people that they simply won't have any sexual urges anymore as they are serving a higher power. Ban them from all sexual activity or outlets of any kind. Then put them in an isolated environment with a bunch of vulnerable children....what could go wrong? Then on top of that you have the church telling people with pedophilic or non-hetero (obviously not agreeing with the church's stance on non-hetero people) sexual urges that they can remedy this by becoming priests.