Friday, March 21, 2008

Pure Blasphemy

Spirituality says that god is within us and that we don't need anyone else to make that divine connection for us
Religion says that we are separated from god and that we need "them" to make that divine connection

Spirituality says that we are free to make choices on our own and that we must take personal responsibility for our actions
Religion says we must make their choices and act their way

The theme of spirituality is unconditional love
The theme of religion is fear and guilt

Spirituality does not require us to make donations
Religion has become big business

Spirituality says there is no hell, no judgement, no angry god... That we are loved unconditionally
Religion says there is a hell, god gets angry and judges us... Therefore, we are not loved unconditionally

Spirituality says we are free to choose our own path to god
Religion commands us to do it their way

Spirituality says we go to god to lighten our burden
Religion has taught us to fear their god

Spirituality says we should not be ashamed of our sexuality... That it should be a sacred celebration of love
Religion has taught us to feel ashamed, guilty and dirty about our sexuality

Spirituality teaches us to honor and respect mother earth
Religion has told us to "be thou fruitful, multiply and subdue the earth" i repeat... "Subdue the earth

Spirituality reminds us that we are one with god and one with each other
Religion teaches disunity and separation which is the opposite of god

Spirituality says god is within
Religion says he is in heaven and that "they" are the only intermediaries for u

Spirituality says we are born in innocence and purity
Religion says we are born with sin

Spirituality teaches that we are on a long spiritual adventure and journey which will ultimately end by reuniting with our source
Religion says we've got one life to get it all right and there is nothing but heaven or hell after that

Spirituality says we are free to expres
Religion gave us the dreaded inquisition

Spirituality teaches unconditional love for all
Religion gave us the crusades in which many were killed and slaughtered in the name of god

Spirituality teaches that we should love one another unconditionally and always honor the rights and choices of others
Religion treated native americans, the mayans and other indigenous cultures as savage primitives who "must be saved"

Spirituality teaches peace and harmony
Religion has caused more wars and more killing than any other reason

Spirituality says respect all living things
I never once heard any religion say stop slaughtering millions of trees every year for christ's birthday

Spirituality teaches us to have faith in ourselves
Religion teaches us to have faith in them

Spirituality says we have all the answers... That we can find them by "going within"
Religion teaches us that it has all the answers and only its answers are the right ones

Spirituality teaches us to search for the universal truths and our hearts will tell us when we have found them
Religion teaches we have no choice but to accept their version of the truth

Which one feels better to you? Spirituality or religion?
Go to your heart for the answer. It will never lie to you

(Source unknown)

My summary:
Religion is a dogmatic belief system.
Spirituality to me is a catma way of life (of which aspects can be dogmatically interpreted too by the less intelligent). (PS: Spirituality is NOT equal to the New Age Belief System)

Dogma: absolute belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization, thought to be authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted or diverged from.
Catma: relative meta-beliefs or flexible opinions held by a person, thought to be interesting, likely or profound at most, hopefully only one of many views in that area, to be investigated and questioned continually, laughed at and perhaps even re-modelled, just for fun. (You get the idea ;p)

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