A psychological approch to how religion works

[OnlyNatural]

And in lieu of no available person to repent to? What about if the only wrong came from policing your own thoughts by your own morals?

So it's about the need to be accountable, to repent, to someone or something outside of yourself, whether that be another person or God. If the 'wrong' you commit in your thoughts has harmed no other actual person, then you must still repent to an external deity.

Repentance does not relieve any responsibility. Repentance frees from the conviction of guilt to assist the healing process.

Why not just be accountable to ourselves? Surely, if you feel guilty, unloading that feeling through repentance to the divine is not the only option.

Most people's thought processes probably go something like this: 'That thing I did (or thought) made me feel guilty. This painful feeling (perhaps accompanied by empathy if you harmed someone else) inhibits me from doing that again, and motivates me to correct the harm I've done.' Usually, anyway. We're all human, certainly not perfect. But saying we're 'sinners' is not helpful. Of COURSE we're not perfect. Evolved creatures never are, and never will be.

As a Christian we are held not only to the laws of the land , but to a law imposed by God both of which squarely place responsibility (either for punishment or eternal judgement) on the individual.

But surely you don't follow all the laws imposed by God that have been recorded throughout the centuries. Your own sense of morality is what determines which laws you follow. Also, it's hard to see how the responsibility is all yours, your choices are rather constrained. You are a sinner from the start, your only option is to repent, if you don't you'll be punished eternally.

The idea of original sin is an unpleasant one, but I think the psychological damage it can do really depends on how it is indoctrinated, and how early in the child's life it's introduced. A child who is read a nice story about Adam and Eve by a loving mother will have an altogether different experience from a child raised in a 'fire and brimstone' type family whose parents think people are 'dirty little sinners.'