FREE DE SOUL

For a long time, I believed morality required a divine author. Right and wrong, good and evil, were ideas that existed only because God decreed them. I measured my actions against rules I hadn’t written, constantly worried that I might unknowingly step outside some invisible boundary. Morality felt like an external system sometimes comforting, often oppressive. Leaving faith forced me to rethink everything. If there was no God, was everything permissible? Did life lose its mo

For years, prayer was my refuge. I would fold my hands, close my eyes, and speak words that promised guidance, protection, and intervention. It was comforting, almost meditative. But as I learned more about the natural world, the comforting illusions began to fade. Science didn’t mock my prayers; it offered explanations. It showed me the underlying mechanisms of the universe, the processes that gave rise to life and consciousness, and the principles that governed the cosmos.

Faith is a strange thing. For many, it is comforting, grounding, and reassuring. But for others myself included it can be a weighty, oppressive force that shapes behavior in subtle, sometimes invisible ways. One of the most powerful mechanisms religion uses is fear. Fear of judgment, fear of punishment, fear of social ostracism. Fear can keep people believing long after doubt has taken root. I remember growing up constantly aware of rules I didn’t fully understand. It wasn’t