A Religious Response

Selina commented to my post about making America better by saying :

Get rid of organized religion... and instead embrace universal spirituality.

And it's really easy to just say "yup yup". Personally I don't practice any organized religion at all. But I do have a very strong connection to the energy that is everything which is my way of saying that I'm quite spiritual. However, I don't think that ridding the world of organized religion is the answer. I believe that anyone can use whatever method they need to get in touch with the universe. Some need the crutch that religion gives them. Some are not challengers and like the comfort of following blindly and I really don't care.

What I do not like when it comes to organized religion is twofold. First I don't like how the bigger religions use their huge membership to become nation states of their own. A good example of that would be Catholicism. It seems to me that the bigger a religion gets, the more it's concerned with power and control and the less it's concerned with getting people in touch with the reality of life.

The second problem I have with religion is the big one and that’s when religion or people in the name of God or Jesus or Allah or whoever, decide that they are going to interfere with my life or my way of life. There is no good reason to interfere with other people and their lives. Live your life, believe what you want to believe and stay the fuck away from me! Every war that has ever been fought has been in the name of religion or god. Every major societal problem we have in America can be traced to religious roots in some way.

So doing away with organized religion will only serve to alienate people and leave them lost. I firmly believe that they will have no way of finding their way without it. I believe that some people are mindless sheep when it comes to self-awareness and spiritual awareness and that they can't be expected to find their way alone. That wouldn't be good. We do however need to limit religions influence on our world and somehow make it so religion is something people can enjoy on their own. Kind of like smoking Pot :)