I attended an extremely conservative Christian elementary school, went to a very liberal Baptist church but now I consider myself to be more spiritual than religious. In my opinion, spirituality involves a personal relationship with the divine (knowledge, understanding, acting according to spirit). Religion, on the other hand, is a means by which people attempt to explain God (i.e. a lens/framework to view God). I am always struck by how remarkably similar the tenants of different organized religions truly are. Each involves a divine entity (God, Brahman, Allah), each dictates the rituals followers must observe (prayer, meditation, yoga), and each promises some level of separation from wordly limitations (Heaven, Nirvana, Resurrection). If religions are as similar as they appear upon further examination, why does religious pluralism seem like such a hard concept to grasp?
Consider the ink blot test used in psychological examinations (the infamous Rorschach). The picture is pretty standard. What changes, however, is people’s interpretations of the picture. What you see may or may not be the same thing that I see. Am I wrong? Are you wrong? Or, are we both right? Religion is something like that. God or the divine doesn't change, but people’s beliefs about who God is can be contingent on race, culture, language, individual personality, background, etc. We all are different and have different experiences so it makes sense that God would "appear" to each person in a different way.
The main issue I have with organized religion is that it can be divisive and used by its followers for devious purposes. If you believe that your religion is the only correct means of understanding God then already you’ve established your beliefs as superior and mine as inferior. Spirituality gives individuals the freedom to seek God for themselves. It emphasizes the personal nature of a relationship with God. In the end, it is God who can save you; not a preacher, a church, a religion.
