"...inherent sense of ethics and justice is far better than subscribing to a code of actions based on an authoritarian model."

Another false dichotomy -- the assumption in your statement is a false "either/or". Religion is not, especially in the USA or the western world, an authoritarian model in the manner in which you are suggesting...

That is, people in the western world are not religious because they are forced to view the world that way. Quite the opposite. Most people choose their religious affiliation as they find a belief system that most closely describes the world either as they see it, or in a manner they think is the most rational explanation of the world.

So you have the cart before the horse. Religion informs the world view, but it is most often chosen as a system of belief because of its capacity to explain the world.

In that manner, if you still maintain that religion is authoritarian -- it is so because people have chosen to believe it -- they've found reason therein.   They don't choose to believe it because it is authoritarian.