I love this idea! I think most religions revolve around the same basic principles. It occurred to me when I was younger that I followed the specific religion I did because that’s what I was born into. If I had born into a family with a different faith, I would have believed in that. Since faith implies not knowing, I think all we can ever know for sure is that we want to uphold those core ideas that most religions have in common: love, forgiveness, and kindness, to name a few–and that implies not merely tolerating but actually embracing people of other faiths.

The relative spirituality of the founder of a religion (and mostly they didn’t intend to be), the religious organization, and individual adherents vary greatly. It is no wonder that people find the claim that all religions lead to the same place as dubious. Religion is a framework that can but does not guarantee to lead to spirituality. It is the adherence to spiritual principles that makes for a spiritual person. If their religion teaches and promotes such principles, it is a support for their spirituality.

I agree with Kenneth: Religion can but does not guarantee to lead to spirituality. I noticed that the more people focus on the scriptures and the ‘rules’ of their religion, the more they are taken away from the spiritual path. And the more they focus on their own personal evolution and being a good person, the more they are taken away from religion.

I feel that just pronouncing yourself as a member of a certain religion is taking you away from your spiritual path. By saying: ‘I am a Christian’, you are putting yourself in a box. You are differentiating yourself from everyone who is not Christian. And the same goes for claiming to be part of any other group or movement (Country, religion, sports team, race, … ) It all creates a degree of separation when there is only oneness.

Just the fact that all these religions have become ‘religions’ goes against everything their founders taught. Don’t focus on yourself, fear God,  … . The people who turned these teachings into religions knew very well what they were doing. They turned them into tools to control the masses. And for centuries this worked almost flawlessly.

Now, more and more people are awakening and finding their own path to God and often this doesn’t involve religion. Which is a good thing. There should be diversity, there should be different paths.

You might think I am against religion, but I am not. I think it is neither good or bad. If  a person chooses the path of a certain religion, it all comes down to how he interprets the message. What he does with what he learns is what makes it bad or good.

I believe that spirituality is a universal human expression and is the seed of most religions.

It can be expressed inside or outside the context of  a specific religion.

Religion plays a big role in terms of societal structure and rules.

This can at times interfere with  spiritual expression/oneness.

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. -Buddha

I think people confuse religion and spirituality. Following a religion, even if you have been raised to believe it is true and therefore believe it is, is not the same as finding your spirituality. Following the teaching of another and accepting them as truth because we have been instructed to does not mean we have found our spirituality, it just means you have accepted another persons truths to be your own. Spirituality means you have found your own truths.

I was raised Catholic in a strict Catholic family. I recieved all my rights of passage but never stopped questioning what I was being taught. I envied those who could have such faith in something I found so hard to believe. However, I never stopped knowing that there was something greater beyond what this world has to offer and that this was just one chapter in a whole story of who I was.

I researched and studied and searched for answers to my questions which is what brought me to Eastern belief systems and it was if a light switch had been turned on within me. As I read the teaching of Zen Buddhism it was as if all the questions I had ever had were being handed to me all in one place. I often explain the epiphany, not as learning something I chose to believe but as reading something I just knew to be true. It all made sense to me once I found a path.

No matter what a person beleives or chooses to believe, in the end we will all answer to the same divine, so how we choose to see or worship while we are here is up to the individual.

There is no one right answer to living a spiritual life, it is all about what is right for you.