There is one conflict above all others in religion, and everyplace else as well. However it is not generally addressed directly. It is a conflict between the objective origins of reality and subjective forces. Sin is a subjective conflict with objective reality; and therefore, it creates a subjective existence off to the side of objective reality and in conflict with it.

There is a proverbial fence over which the moral world and sin world combat each other. The moral side is in a medium of objective realities which define life and morality. The sin side is in a medium of forces which are subjectively created.

The moral significance of the conflict is often hard to recognize, because there is a validity to subjective existence. What corrupted persons do not understand is that subjective existence must be limited and subject to objective demands in relating to other persons. Morality requires some objective standards in human relations when necessary to prevent or correct problems.

The ancient Greeks had a concept of existence based on spiritism. There was a half-truth to it. It was too substantial to come out of nowheres. The concept was that the gods influence everything, and appeasing them was how to assure a successful life.

Such spiritism demonstrates a totally subjective basis for religion. And religion created the basis for reality and how it was handled. Objectivity was beyond comprehension.

The deist religions of course teach that one God above all others rules life. Christ, however, taught more than deism; he taught rationality applied to objective reality as the basis of morality.

The Greeks dabbled in the subject of objectivity but could not find their way through it.

The answer was not in the molecules; it was in the morality. Morality made objectivity possible, so the molecules could yield up their information.

No one quite realized that Christ was teaching rationality, and therefore the theological drift was toward an exageration of deism as divine force. Ultimately the divine force culminated in the "keys to heaven."

The ultra conservatives claim that the sacraments are the keys to heaven, and the only purpose of Catholicism is to deliver them. They sometimes go so far as to say that if a single person who is not a Catholic gets saved, then the keys to heaven do not exist, and Catholicism is nothing. This thought pattern runs through Catholilc theology, depending on how conservative the authors are.

The alternative to the keys to heaven is objective reality derived and applied through rationality. If objective reality and rationality are the concerns of Christianity, then church authorities must compete with the shoe salesmen and scientists for the minds of men.

You would think that the Protestants could get it right, since they rebelled against the authoritarianism of Catholicism. Not so. Rejecting one thing is not necessarily accepting another—not when it is objective reality and rationality staring a sinner in the face. They went rushing back to the security of authoritarianism and created their own keys to heaven, which they called atonement.

Certainly there are divine influences in life, but they are God's responsibility, not man's. Christ taught human responsibilities as the determining factor in morality, life and salvation.

Human responsibilities are not in conflict with sacraments. Prior to V-II, there was a vein of thought in Catholic theology indicating that sacraments were related to human responsibilities for overcoming sin and maintaining a state called grace.

Authoritarianism creates conflicts with objective reality and rationality. Life cannot be separated from objective reality, thanks to the molecules. But corrupted persons cannot accept objective reality, because truth condemns them of sin. So the conflicts create power struggles between groups rather than a resolution of the problems. The truth would set them free.

In summary, there are two sources for reality: objective, unified reality and subjective origins. There has to be some source of authority with subjective reality, or it is nothing. Since most persons do not have much authority, they pretend to be representing some other authority, and figureheads are needed for that purpose.