Religion vs. Spirituality

During a call home to my mother, I found myself discussing, as I occasionally do, the ideas of spirituality. There may be some crossover between this and some of my other rants, but I thought I would get some things down.

I have, before, been asked why it is I do not prescribe to any particular religion. I have been criticized for this on multiple occasions, and likewise, I have attempted on occasion to start going to church, even once so far (quite on my own, without any prompting from my family) attending church weekly for a period of a few months, almost to the point of being Baptized.


The reason I stopped attending church regularly can be seen, possibly, as childish. They said things I didn't like. They told me that gays and other religions were going to Hell, and that both groups needed to be reformed. With a sister who had recently come out of the closet, and friends of many different faiths, I for a time grew cynical toward religion. I felt betrayed.

I admittedly still retain some of that cynicism. However, it's changed over the years. I occasionally do still randomly go to church (Though it's been a couple of years since the last time I did; having no car has a lot to do with that.) and I believe that religion has a lot to offer.

There are a lot of things to be learned from religion, but I still choose not to prescribe to any singular faith. I much prefer to keep to faith as a concept, rather than a group.

The tattoo on the inside of my ankle gives a clear hint as to why I feel the way I do. "I believe in Something," it reads. Not in God, or Allah, or Yahweh, or Jehovah, or any other name that religions give whatever force drives our world. I simply believe that there Is. To me, the idea of prescribing to a religion is to take on someone else's ideas. To believe in any one man delivering the truth of his deity (or deities) is to believe that any fellow sinner knows more than we do. How is it that a priest or a preacher or a shaman, etc. can know it all? Can the prophets? To communicate with us, even Christ had to become human. He lived like us, he suffered like us, he died like us. The difference between him and us is he Saw, and he was not afraid.

But even Christ was human, and thus flawed. Son of God or not (and aren't we all, if you read what the Bible says?) what remains is his Story. Like all of the people around us, Jesus was a character in our book of Life. That's not to say he wasn't a real person, but all we know of him is what has been written down, what has been retranslated, the image of him through others' eyes. This is the same of any prophet. All we have is someone's perception to go by. Who's to say that the authors of the Bible didn't miss something that was truly important? Who's to say that even those who were alive during the time of Christ or Muhammed or any other Prophet could see enough to speak the truth? A miracle may be a flashy turning of water to wine, but who's to say the true miracle couldn't have been something that would have made a less interesting story? I'm a firm believer in the idea that even spiritual scripts are concentrated too much on flashiness to catch the readers' eyes. They're good storytelling, with fascinating main characters. There's a reason the Bible is the world's bestselling book, and why there have been so many Blockbusters about it.

By not prescribing to any one religion, I admit that I am missing a lot of knowledge about religious doctrine. I've never read the Bible. I don't "know my stuff", by any means. But I also feel--fear, perhaps?--that were I to cling to any singular faith, that I would subscribe to it, both its positive aspects, and it's flaws that it gains from the simple fact of being a human invention.

I'm not going into my spiritual beliefs in this rant. I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that, like all religions do, I have embarked on a search for a Truth that I will never fully find, and that I have the philosopher's curse of often liking to brag when I think I'm onto something.

But I wanted to express the importance of faith and spirituality over religion. Whatever your beliefs, don't define yourself based on a label of "Christian", "Buddhist", or whatever religion you may be. Any person may agree with many things a religion says, but don't agree simply because you think that it must be right, because it is a religion, or because you are trying to get into some kind of heaven.

Remember, even within religion, are a lot of different minds, who each read their doctrines and dogma differently. Many wars have been started and many churches split because someone didn't agree. Many petty battles have begun because of people who feel that they understand God better than another person or another group. Religion can bring about many, many wonderful things, but it is this fact that makes it flawed. It is sinners thinking that they're saints. Even worse are those who profess beliefs and act in certain ways to be worshipped as God is, or to attain enlightenment or heaven. There is no one more selfish or corrupt as a person who uses God as a means to his or her own ends.

In the same way, I know a lot of people who disregard religion for all the wrong reasons. Many people from around high school age to my age in particular have labeled themselves "Atheist", because being religious is "uncool", or "illogical". Even worse are those who cease to allow themselves to believe altogether because they have been hurt by religion. How much it shows that one's beliefs aren't their own, when they can throw them away so easily.

Religion may not be my path, but that's not to say my path is right. It's merely my choice. But I urge everyone, in religion or out of it, to consider why you believe what you believe, and to realise that if your beliefs don't evolve over time, as you grow, then you're probably not questioning enough.

<3