10 Reasons You Should Never Have a Religion
Many of us grew up in religious homes and have experienced churches, religious texts and the like. Yet I have seen repeatedly that as we develop our consciousness, many people outgrow their need for religion and become empowered by a universal experience of their own innate spiritual nature, rather than the need for an outside authority within religion. Here are 10 reasons you should never have a religion, courtesy of Infinite Waters:
1) The Middle Man- Religions always create a medium through with you must go to get to ‘god’ or to reach the truth. Yet we are all fully powerful and autonomous within ourselves. We are a reflection of the microcosmic and macrocosmic nature of the universe. We have the power directly within ourselves and need no middle man to facilitate our spiritual experience. We are spirit.
2) Lack of Self Love- “Love thy neighbor” is a common teaching in religion, and not a fundamentally ‘bad’ one, but yet the emphasis is always on loving others, when in reality love for the self is the number one step to an experience of personal enlightenment and awareness. In religion, many times we are told that we are fundamentally bad and sinful. Instead we could choose to engage the truth that we are fundamentally perfect.
3) Personal Responsibility- Responsibility could be explained as “responding to your ability”. In religious settings, it often seems the members are always passing off the responsibility of knowledge, power, or connection to an authority within the religion or an outward concept of god, rather than being given and owning the responsibility we all innately have over our own experience.
4) Separation- There seems to always be competition between religions with each one claiming not only to be ‘right’ but to be the ONLY right way. The separation is created between people on earth, sometimes covering up our inherent connectedness. The separation also occurs between the person and their concept of ‘god’ because, as noted in #1, religions always subject a member to middle man or someone who holds more authority than the self.ORganize
5) Systematic Murder- Think of the crusades- one of the darkest and most disturbing occurrences in our collective history. Why must there always be murder in the name of religion? Because let’s be honest. Though it is said that religious murder is in the name of ‘god’ it is only in the name of one person’s opinion or person experience of god. Yet though religious texts affiliate ‘god’ with love, there is still always violence. This seems fundamentally incorrect.
6) Justification for Killing Animals- Whether or not you choose to eat meat on your path, we can probably all agree that the systemic ‘use’ of animals, the degradation of respect towards our brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom, and the defining of animals as commodities for our consumption is fundamentally disrespectful and implies a total lack of compassion. The Bible and other books teach that animals were created for us, to be the sacrifice for us. Yet animals exist as autonomous beings for the purpose of their own existence.
7) The Divine Feminine- You will find that most mainstream religions essentially entirely omit the importance of the divine feminine. The depiction of ‘god’ is almost always male and the sexuality, power, and autonomy of women is subjugated and destroyed. There is no acknowledgement or appreciation for the beauty, power, and life giving nature of the feminine.
8) It’s Just a Story- The stories held by various religions are just that- stories. They are someone else’s story. But what’s YOUR story? What is your actual personal experience of the divine?
9) The Waiting Game- Religions are constantly perpetuating the belief that we must wait for someone else to save us. A messiah, a savior, a prophet, a guru. Yet there is no waiting necessary. We are the ones we are waiting for.
10) Transcending the Duality of Good and Evil- Religions promote and perpetuate the paradigm of duality, focusing extensively into the “good-bad “ perspective. This is a very disempowering and limiting perspective. Though certain aspects of our experience are felt through a dualistic 3rd dimensional reality, we are evolving into more expansive states of being where we can free ourselves from such labeling systems.
The basic idea here is that if religion works for you on your journey, more power to you. Yet many of the overarching structures and paradigms found within organized religions can be disempowering to the individual person, taking the power away from the self and giving it to someone else. It is time in our collective evolution to embrace our own knowing and God-self.
You can check out the whole video here: (and I highly recommend that you do!)
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from: http://www.zengardner.com/10-reasons-never-religion/