375

Religion is not the art of living. "Living" applied generally suggests an unhindered degree of behavioral freedom. Religion is the art of obedience and faith. And that which one is obedient to in any particular religion defines the faith and the actions of its devotees. If your obedience is to a non-corporeal being who makes up arbitrary rules about how one is to behave, regardless of the affects that behavior will have on those who do not declare obedience, and without any mechanism for eliminating harmful elements in that religion (for example: hatred of transgenders and mistreatment of women), then it is a prescription for disaster and social unrest. See the last 1600 years of world history for proof of this fact.

The difference between society's rules and a religion's rules is that a society's rules can be applied to all those who live within that society as a whole. And being diverse, a society's rules can be applied to a number of different people, or adapt to fit their needs. Religious rules can only be applied to persons of that particular religion, unless forced onto others who do not practice said religion; as if often the case. And there is no adaptation within the framework of religious rule. Society's rules can apply to the Christian, the Hindu, the Muslim, the Buddhist, and the atheist alike. Christian rule cannot. Muslim rule cannot. Hindu rule cannot.

There is nothing wrong with obeying rules that can be applied universally. Although religion might contain some rules that are universal, rules pertaining only to a specific religion are not universal. So unless that religion is willing to drop those rules that do not apply to a larger, diverse population, attempting to enforce those rules on others amounts to oppression.