He can choose as he likes; he can ascribe difficulty to difficult times if he likes, and he can assert that religion is useful at those times if he likes. He can choose to do as he likes.<p>I choose to not rely on a crutch of lies to navigate my path. I choose to live, and do good precisely <i>because</i> that is my choice - not in fear or jealous protection of some after-death reward.<p>I have lived through deaths of relatives. I have lived through the birth of children. The ache of sadness that cannot be assuaged, and the joy of new birth that cannot be measured are part and parcel of this thing called life.<p>To artificially limit that experience of <i>living</i>, for the sole purpose of imposing a patriarchal control structure that empowers the few at the expense of the many is not noble or social. It is in fact a terrible slavery that is willingly entered into by far too many. It is a generational mental straightjacket that only few have the keys to escape from. It is a horror.<p>So forgive me if I do not run, laughing and willing, towards the maw of religious doctrine and be swallowed whole, be made <i>less</i> than what I could be. Forgive me if instead I recoil in disgust and denial of the empowerment of others to dictate my life and how I live it, in order to serve their interests rather than my own. Forgive me if my reaction to this sermon on the mount is utter and complete rejection, as the opposite of everything I stand for and desire in life.<p>You are born. You live. You die. You are not special. Words I live by.