psychoanalysis and religion

     Many people believe that psychoanalysis is religion in another form, and not necessarily a more modern one. A famous author and mental patient ( Sylvia Plath ) once compared psychoanalysis to being "born again". Both psychoanalysis and religion promise a new existence, free of the guilt and responsibilities of the past. Both use confession as one of the means to achieve this new existence.  Psychoanalysis is considered a "process"--it has no end.  It isn't meant to cure an illness, after which the patient moves on. It is an ongoing way of life, as religion is to many people. All "analysands"--everyone who has undergone psychoanalysis, including psychoanalysts--are members of a club, in a way. Psychoanalysts have their own therapists, as priests have their confessors. Many analysands attend meetings ( Jungian meetings, or meetings of the "oversoul") , as churchgoers attend services. The only thing psychoanalysis lacks to make a religion is priestly robes and sacraments.

the death penalty and religion

     I have read a lot of different arguments both for and against the death penalty over the last thirty years. The one argument I find insupportable is the religious conviction that we, as a state, are acting out the will of God, or instituting divine justice of some kind, through the execution of criminals. I, as one of "we the people", do not consider myself a god, or an agent of God. I do not believe in the Jungian "oversoul" God--the God made up of all the people together. Although I am not a Christian, the "pot cannot be greater than the potter" certainly should have warned any Christian away from this view. If God is the creative force behind all the life in the universe, that God does not reside in the minds or the sex of human kind, except to the extent that it has created humankind.
     The religious view of the death penalty also denies the redemptive power of God--and I do believe in redemption. For a Christian, it also denies the redemptive power of Jesus--something I though all Christians believed. I believe that any human being can be redeemed at any time, although I do not belong to a religion that requires this belief of me. I believe it because I have seen it, and I know that it is possible.
     If this argument is based on a tenet of faith, those making the argument ought to be able to state plainly just what that tenet is--and they don't seem to be able to do that.