Insight #4: Religion vs Spirituality
These are, in my mind, two different things. Religion is an organization that gathers people together for the purpose of communing with god, or the "other." It is a very useful tool for crafting and controlling societies, for teaching children, for providing support to those in need, and for helping people that might elsewise be forgotten. Spirituality is the individual's relationship with the great big out there. It is what we commune with when we pray. It is the reason we act when we try to be good people.
People who are trying to make the world a better place, for whatever reason, are, in my mind, acting in a spiritual manner, regardless of their beliefs. An atheist who does not believe in heaven or hell, and who still sees that being kind and thoughtful, and works to help the people around them is still acting in a spiritual manner... the spirit that they are attuned to is the human spirit (or, for those who have more environmental concerns; the world spirit.) Spirituality is nothing more than seeing yourself as part of a system, regardless of how you define the system.
Religion is an attempt to attune a group of people to a specific type of spirituality.
There are many problems with religion that aren't as much of a problem with spirituality, mostly because 1000 people can cause more problems than 1 person can.
When religion uses duality to attract followers, there is a problem. The phrase most commonly used is "you are either for me, or against me". That's a phrase that works for god, or god incarnate. It is not a phrase that should come out of the mouth of any human. We are flawed, our vision is flawed, we are not capable of seeing all things as one who is removed from them is. I am not "for" the pope, and yet, I am not againt him, either. He serves his place, even as I do. I am not "for" Billy Grahamn, or George Bush, or any other religious figure. They want this to mean that I am outside, that I am other, I am not. I am a part of the world that they live in, and as such, I am part of them. When we start to believe that anyone who doesn't believe as we do is evil, then we start to destroy ourselves.
When religion becomes too far separate from spirituality, there is a problem. When a religion exists in order to exist, and to get more people under its wing, it no longer serves the goal of spirituality. When a religion becomes centered around the leader of the religion, rather than around god, it has entirely left the path. Religious leaders are the fingers pointing to the moon. When the followers bow down to worship the pointing finger, rather than following the direction of the finger and seeing the moon, they have lost their focus.
When a religion demands that you give up your own spirtual path, and forces you to follow their own, irregardless of your feelings, there is a problem. It is all very well to guide children, and to teach them, and to force them to behave correctly, and to promise them rewards for being good, and punishment for being bad... however, there comes a time in a person's life when they MUST accept that they are an adult, that they must make their own choices, that they must accept that they are well and truly free to take any path they wish... as long as they are willing to suffer the consequences. God gave us free will, and man has been trying to give it back ever since. Religion must learn to let go of its followers, and act in a godly fashion.... and allow people to choose. If they choose wrongly, then they are tied to the world, and the world will act accordingly. There are consequences for everything. There are consequences for breathing, for crossing the street, for lying, for telling the truth, for being brave, and for being a coward. There are consequences for making a decision, and for refusing to make a decision. Every person must find their own path, and sometimes it is not the path that religion would guide them to, but it is their own choice. Religion can, and should guide. It should never force.
