Freedom of choice

It can be said that, of all iterations, the Catholic Church is the one denomination that makes sense in its position on personal freedoms.
After all, many church fathers were well known philosophers. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine of Hippo, and many, many more.
The Church's stand on freedom of choice is simple: if you choose to do wrong, knowingly, you are held to the consequences, both in life and by God. If you knowingly sinned, you cannot (or should not) participate in the Eucharist until you've asked forgiveness, paid your penance.
If we strip away the rituals, what we have is: choosing to do wrong and the consequences. The rest is, in my mind, an ancient tattoo of guilt.
When we turn away from organized religion, some think that there is no longer any morality available to themselves.
Without the church, how can we live a good life?
The answer is simple: we must know what is right and wrong. We learn this through basic, every day living. We make good choices and bad ones. Both have their own consequences. If we continue to learn from both and head ever closer to making better decisions, we are living morally.
It can be said that there are those incapable of being moral without God.
But this is simply not true. The false structure of religion suggests that there is more going on than meets the eye, but in actuality it is just a mirror of everyday life.
The decisions you make are yours alone. If you can focus on that, and realize then, that if you make bad choices, knowingly, the consequences are yours alone.
Don't fall into the trap of trying to be moral because of Heaven or because you want to be 'closer to God'. Make good choices because you want to be a better person. Find support structures in your life that can provide feedback, like friends and family, and then go out with a happy heart.
Religion becomes a burden to the soul, by preventing us from understanding what role we play in our own lives as we exercise the freedom to choose.