by Anthony Baumann

Organized Religion is one thing that I have always been at odds with spiritually. It's something I've touched on, but never really fully explained myself, and why it conflicts with my convictions and with my perspectives on Life. I admit that I am not a church-goer, and that I do not practice any kind of culturally recognized Religion; however, I do not share the sentiments of my peers in believing that I do not practice Spirituality. I believe that from even an objective standpoint, Religious Spirituality is sharply distinguished from Non-Religious Spirituality.

Carl Jung said something along the lines that "Religion can be a block from true Spirituality". And I agree. Over my lifetime (although I admit, it has not been long), I’ve come to the realization that one does not need to be Religious to be Spiritual. Conversely, Religious people are not necessarily (and are usually not) Spiritual. It's very apparent, if only you look at it from an extraneous standpoint.

If you ask a Religious person what their definition of "Spirituality" is, it usually has nothing to do with fulfilling their own desires and keeping themselves at peace, but rather they view it is a Connection between themselves and one ultimate Power.

While there is obviously no "Better" definition, I think it's interesting how selfless Religious people can be. I don't mean "selfless" as meaning "selfish", as obviously Religious people can be some of the most considerate and helpful people on the planet. What I mean by "selfless" is that their interpretation of life is not their own. Many are not themselves -- many have no selves.

I suppose my Psychological detriment with Religion comes with the advent of the fact that, as I stated, the "meaning of life", and all of the modalities in which we live came from someone else, a book written 2000 years ago. Is there an original thought anywhere? Is there any self-interpretation? Any kind of Personality? Any kind of Individualism?

Seemingly not. Of course, when going about normal and daily life, this concept isn't apparent. Of course these people have Personalities. But in the Spiritual realm, many do not seem Authentic. They live their lives regurgitating scripture and things that other people tell them, and never really stop and think "What do I think?" - "If I was never introduced to the Bible, or the Torah, or the Quaran, what would I think about Life?"

Religious people seem to me to be mediums of the Spiritual world. They are born, and learn information from their parents, that they believe to be true. They live life, and then pass the information that their parents gave them onto their kids, who will do the same for their kids. They lead a truly Spiritually Pointless existence. Is the meaning of your life is to Pass Down Information, then I suppose you've found your calling, otherwise- there's no development here- there's no change - there's no growth, there's nothing but passing of  Relay Torch onto the next Generation: Tedium.

Truly, with Organized Religion, there is no Growth of Spirit. You can only do so much with a given amount of Information, and I view that as the Primary reason that Christianity, Judaism and any kind of Organized Religion hasn't changed much over the past 1000 years, and the reason why it probably will not change any time in the near future. Of course, I'm not saying anything about the RIGHT-ness or WRONG-ness of Organized Religion. Hell, they might even be right.

But that's not the point. The point isn't about Right or Wrong. It's about Growth. Development. There's no Development with Organized Religion. I know what most Religious people would say right now. They'd say something along the lines of "But the point of life is to get closer to God, and to truly do his work tangibly" -- you know, something like that. Sure, you can claim that you are doing good things for other people, and you probably ARE doing good things for other people, but YOU, YOURSELF are not Changing. There's no Growth. It's simply Congestion.

Problems are solved, but then there are more Problems. People are helped, but then more people need to be Helped. It's great to Help people, and I think that it's something that everyone should do for each other, every day of their lives. But Spirituality, I do not believe, is simply about "Doing God's Work". In the midst of all the aggrandizing "Help" they're giving people, and all the canned Prayers and enigmatic Scriptures that MUST be true, where is the Development?

It's our duty as Human Beings to help each other, to further our communities and growth as a species, as well as how it pertains to our grasp of the existence of a Higher Power. It's our duty as Spiritual Beings to further our connection with the nature of our existence with our own personal selves. The former (the concept of "Spiritual Beings") is a facet that most Organized Religions, with the exception of Buddhism and Taoism lack, or only very briefly touch upon. If a Spiritual self-connection is mentioned in most Organized Religion, it usually always involves a connection with God. True Spiritualism, in my eyes, is a connection with yourself.

What is the Ultimate act of Spirituality for a Religious person? Ask most, and it will be something like "Feeling an extreme connection with God". That's great. The problem I have here, is that it’s so Finite. There's an End of the line, and there should be no End of the Line -- there should always be room to grow and develop and change into a better person. When you give finite solutions to infinite complexity, you're destroying a whole potential for an ever-changing persona that's not only beneficial for you, but for others, for the entire Human Race.

Religious People, for the most part, are considerate Beings. However, I have felt somewhat emotionally disdained by some of them. It seems to me like some Religious people spend no time actually living life now, but are concerned with the ancient past (around the time where most Scripture was written), and the extreme future (as in life after Death). There seems to be no constructiveness to the soul except for preparing for the afterlife.

I feel like some Christians, metaphorically speaking, don't value me, or anyone but themselves as a true Person. They make me feel like I am only some kind of a pawn in their "Paths to God". They make me feel like a medium, like a toy, a stepping-stone. Ultra-Religious people make me feel like they would literally murder me if their pastor/rabbi/priest told them to. They make me feel like the only purpose I serve in their life is to further them "closer to God". Nobody wants to feel like that.

But finally, I would like to point out that I'm not preaching a Dogma here. I'm simply stating how the system of Organized Religion conflicts with my convictions of life, and why I view it as a Spiritual block. There is a stark difference between a Religious person's definition of Spiritual and a non-Religious person's. Hopefully I've made the subversive nature of this clear: A Religious person's definition of Spirituality is Finite, while most non-Religious people's is Infinite. There is no Right Definition. Truly, the word "Finite" seems derogatory and condescending; however, remember that it has no subterfuged jab.

However, most Christians, Jews and Muslims alike would agree that "God is Infinite". I agree -- the Higher Power may be infinite, but the room that your Doctrinal Views of approaching Spirituality and Faith leave for change and development truly are very Finite (If not non-existent). Dogmatic Religions don't leave any kind of room for new information, new sociological developments, new cultures. This is the reason that many of our social systems are so backwards, why sometimes you feel like you are living 600 years ago: Because the way most people approach their faith is 600 years old.

In addition, the "Finite Spirituality" seems to be the more Logical of the two.  However, we have to remember that ANY kind of Religion and ANY kind of Spirituality is not based on Logic whatsoever. There is no Logic to your concept of God, nor is there any logic to my concept of Spiritualism. But we as Humans almost intuitively know that there's something more, something that logic can't explain; something too complex. Maybe it's our need to feel like we are not worthless, pointless groups of chemicals floating around in nothingness, or maybe there truly is something more.

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