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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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Religion is a tool. A tool can be used to build or destroy.
Are cars more inherently evil than bicycles and skateboards because more people are killed by them than bikes and skateboards, right? No. That's not really how it works. If religion is a drug, not enough sucks and too much could kill you. But the appropriate balance and situation, it's beneficial.
IMO, religions, like unions, once served a very important purpose for an environment that doesn't really exist anymore. Their purpose for existence has eroded significantly to the point where some people argue they should cease to exist. I think that's fair.
Once upon a time, religion was used to scare people into not doing as many ####ty things or working on things as a group for a greater good or survival. This was good for many populaces which were intent on conquering each other as a precaution for survival.
Now without that environment, you can potentially argue it's scaring people into various levels of social death and negative mental health and it's more a detriment to survival rather than an aid.
The power structure that Catholicism has does seemingly make it easy for some to exploit it. Perhaps you are right that those sociopaths and psychopaths flock to those specific religious positions of power in the same way that non-religious pedos flock to certain countries where they can exploit the local rules and government to acquire what they wish to acquire. The blame and criticism of the lack of work done to block and hinder these people from continuing to exploit these positions of power is appropriate.
But what's kinda screwed up is that the religion does believe that what these people are doing is wrong. This is ascribed to by the absolute vast majority (likely 95%+) of those practitioners as a "sin" and should be punished. Yet there are people that against the religion that make the claim that the religion thinks it's OK. IMO that's unnecessary and unhelpful towards moving towards what beliefs the majority thinks is the best to maintain/cultivate going forward.