State policy should not be driven by religion

Despite claims to the contrary by members, the Catholic Church's position on abortion and embryonic stem cell research is not about saving lives. It's about saving souls.
Catholicism does not show the same kind of commitment to anti-war movements, road death prevention or the elimination of the death penalty, where it is still legal, as it does to preventing abortion. In history, the Church was quite ready to kill anybody who disagreed with it. Up to recently the life of a mother had no value beside that of an un-baptised foetus, and this only changed in response to massive public outcry about the bizarre situations it brought about in practice.

These facts are only explicable in the light of a belief that the soul is more important than mortal life, and that only baptism can save the soul. However, the soul cannot objectively be shown to exist and, for many people, it does not exist.

Catholics will say it's a matter of faith and freedom of religion demands that their faith be respected. The problem arises when they can influence the incorporation of this faith into the laws of the land. Then everybody, Catholic, non-Catholic and those of no religion at all, are bound by the same principles. It's as if, where it wants to force all citizens to conform to its beliefs by having them in legislation, it rejects the idea of religious tolerance.

The position is made worse by a refusal to recognise that those who hold a different view on these matters are moral, responsible people. Take away belief in the soul and their standpoint becomes more than reasonable, particularly relative to Catholicism's historic attitude to adult human life.

According to the Church, you may not believe in the immortal soul, but you will be forced by the laws of the land to behave as if you did.

That's not right.