Religion is retrospective. Religion looks backward to the faiths of our fathers. We inherit religion from the graves of a thousand dead men. So few who call themselves “religious” have actually stopped for a moment and asked themselves, “Where did I get this thing? Where did I find it? Was it an infusion from the sky? Did an angel swoop down and breathe the life of Judaism into my spirit?” If a man will only open his rational mind but a second, he will find that the resounding answer is no. Many would like to believe that they alone have searched the universe and have autonomously discovered the answer to the great cosmic riddle —but not so. You inherited your religion, sir. You inherited your religion, madam. Your religion is the belief of another, who himself took it from another, who took it from still another, and another, and another, and another. Your religion is not yours. It is a family heirloom. Religion is like a hand-me-down suit from a grandfather who lived in antiquity.

Religion is a popular delusion. It is a social custom. It is a societal fad. Religion is capricious. A woman’s religion is merely the result of where she was born and which clique she chooses to join. Those born in Pakistan will be Muslim, those born in Israel will be Jewish, and those born in America will be Christian. And so, on the whim of that one geographic criterion, humans are assimilated into the dominant religious group of their nation, of their region, of their parents, of their peers. And thus, they take on the madness of the crowd. Like horses and cattle, humans are herd animals who adopt the religion of the pack. Humans adopt whatever sacred belief will least upset the mob.

Religion is proprietary. It is a pre-fabricated template. It is not to be toyed with or touched. It is someone else’s goods. It is a patented widget. Religion is a corporate enterprise, a system in which priests, mullahs, and rabbis have defined the nature of the universe and sell that ready-made product to you. They have turned over every rock and rooted out every weasel in the universe and ascribed to him some edict, proclamation, or law that explains his every move and his every behavior. Thus, religion is like an Apple computer: you take it out of the box, plug it in, push a button, and it works. Someone else has done all the thinking. Someone else has done all the work. Therefore, again, religion is not you own. Religion does not come from you; it is given to you. Not only have we inherited it from our ancestors, not only have we adopted it from the group-think of our societies, we have accepted it as it is already written and we have left it as it is already defined. Therefore, religion is another man’s trick, a turnkey philosophy used for power, money, and world domination.

Religion is dogma. Dogma is a set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. When one signs on to an organized religion, he subjugates himself to the mind of the church and opens a box from which all the griefs of the universe spring. To be religious is to be a slave to the dominant paradigm. The universe is already fully understood. The songs and the symbols are already formed. There is no need to question, hesitate, or think. All that is left for you is to fall into line.

Spirituality is introspective. It is immediate. It lives in the here and now and looks to the ground at our feet, to the sky over our heads. Spirituality is a personal connection with the divine presence. It comes from within, and it bows not to authorities and past traditions. Spirituality is not the echo of our dead ancestors and is not inherited from anyone. Spirituality wells up from the deepest part of your own essence and is as individual to you as your own fingerprint. Spirituality is authentic, organic, and true. To be spiritual is merely to listen to the voice of nature, to the voice of the universe, to the voice of your own intuition, to the voice of your own god.

Spirituality is not cliquish or regional. Spirituality is open, accepting, and non-biased. It is merely found in those who feel the great divinity within nature and within themselves but do not wish to infect that indefinable thing with dogma, hierarchy, patriarchy, and the lust for power. Spirituality fills the void between Atheism and Religion. Because spirituality is absent of all rules, laws, proclamations, and structure, there is no chance for indoctrination by culture and group-think. The proselytizer’s tool bag is empty.

Spirituality is an open-source philosophy. There is nothing to have been pre-fabricated except a broad definition: the belief in one indefinable and omnipresent god who is the cause and/or the substance of the universe and who can be experienced through intuition, communion with nature, meditation, contemplation, and prayer. For one, god might simply be nature. For another, god might be an entity who both exists within and transcends the universe. Those who define themselves as “Spiritual, But Not Religious” are often more comfortable in contemplating the universe as a mystery than they are in filling it with belief systems such as eternal reward, reincarnation, karma, miracles, angels, demigods, etc.

Spirituality is devoid of dogma. Indeed, the central-most aspect of spirituality is its lack of doctrine. There are no creeds, no oaths, and no membership cards. Spirituality does not try to explain the universe. Those who are spiritual simply want to live within the universe and be free to experience and connect with the divine presence in their own individual ways. And because spirituality is not infected with ideology and the madness of crowds, no great shaman, no priest, and no prophet can wield it as a tool to dominate humankind. Spirituality requires us to think and feel for ourselves.

Where there is Religion, there is dogma. Where there is dogma, there is divisiveness, intolerance, hate, and hierarchy. Where there is spirituality, there is uncertainty. Where there is uncertainty, there is openness, acceptance, love, and equality.

By: Colin Shanafelt
http://www.spiritualdeism.com
http://spiritualdeism.com/about/