What's Wrong with Religion?

I am by no means a theologian, but with everything going on in the world today I can't help but stop and wonder where it all went wrong. I am an average American woman, a married, middle-class, working mom and a Christian. I study the bible because it helps me and I research all religions because I am curious about the nature and pattern of things. Do I know what's wrong with religion? Absolutely not - but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that as a species, we have the habit of repeating our mistakes, and as far apart as some religions hold themselves to be, they are no exception to this rule.

NOBODY KNOWS THE NAME OF THE CREATOR
Forgive me in advance for only focusing on organized religion. I fully realize that the world's earliest humans were spirituality led before they could even utter the name of their deity. I believe this to be the earliest mistake in religion, trying to give a name to something that is beyond comprehension. Even today, religions still argue over the name of the Creator. It's a he, it's a she, it's not an it, his name is God but don't spell it out, He is God, but not a god, his name is Allah, his name is Jehovah, speak his name often, don't speak his name, have others speak to him for you. I am already confused trying to write this all out, so why is it so surprising that the majority of the world has simply given up trying to understand?

NOBODY HAS OWNERSHIP OVER ANY CREATION
So here's my theory, take it for what it's worth. I believe that all things in this world were created by an awesome supreme being. I personally, don't really care what anyone else calls this being; all I know is that through-out the history of mankind people have felt the knowledge of this truth in their hearts. I figure it only took one couple looking at their newborn child to say "how in the world did we create this without messing it up?" I mean, let's face it; even with the advances in today's technology, the majority of us still have trouble making gravy. Okay, so maybe it's just me, but you get the point.

NOBODY IS THE SAME
So is this where it went wrong next? Although parents may accept the fact they did not actually form this perfect little being alone, they become the new creations provider. They begin teaching, trying to lead this child into the truths that they themselves have found in their own existence. This may work for a while, but eventually somebody stands up and says "I see it a different way" and then they go that way.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the rest of society scoffs at this wrong way of thinking and bans the different one, creating laws to prevent individuality from rearing its sinful head again. Let me pause and ask a question here - did The Designer of this universe ever create two exact replicas of the same thing? Even twins have minor differences. No two blades of grass are identical, your thumbprints are exclusive to only you, even something as complex as DNA can pinpoint that you are a completely unique individual, and yet historical, we have repeated the idea that there is only one right religious path.

BOUNDARIES DON'T ALLOW FOR INDIVIDUAL SPIRITUAL GROWTH
So if you are following my logic here, you may understand where I believe the concept of religion began to splinter. I am not even saying that religion was wrong at this point, but I do think that this may have been the crossroad that created the boundaries that exist in religion today. Laws are good and necessary in our society, but I believe they should always allow for growth and wisdom. One individual could never possible carry the entire knowledge of this universe, it's just too much. So it makes sense to me that this desire to have a relationship with The Creator is a constantly evolving process. I don't have all the answers, and neither does anyone else, so we just continue doing the best we can, sharing our beliefs with those that are willing to listen and listening to those that are willing to share. To me, this is the best and only workable way to approach religion. Unfortunately it didn't take very long for our religious forefathers to hedge us into a single-minded way of religious living and then declare law based on their own personal paths.

NOBODY IS PERFECT
I believe in the entire bible, but I must logically admit that it was written by men, very spiritual men, but flawed men just the same. This does not in any way diminish my view that the authority of the bible to teach is supreme. Have you ever heard the phrase "hindsight is 20/20"? It's so much easier to discern our mistakes after we make them. If we are really wise, we learn from other people's mistakes before we make them. Of course, there will always be those same people that stand up and say "I'm gonna do it my way anyway" and that's okay. Sometimes they teach us better ways to do things and sometimes they teach us the more valuable lesson of how not to do things. There are many areas of the bible that teach us what not to do, but almost more importantly the bible shows us how easily it is to get distracted from the truth, no matter what kind of relationship we have with The Creator. People fail, all the time, repeatedly. The mistakes made by the spiritual men of the bible; Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, just to name a few, are common mistakes. These stories can reveal to us our own weaknesses if we are humble enough to admit them. Our persistent refusal to do that exact thing has lead to the next crack in our religious heritage, ego.

THE BLIND LEAD THE BLIND
I am right and you are wrong, therefore you must follow me. This world will always consist of leaders and followers. I'm not exactly sure why, it just seems to be the way things are. Leaders are vocal in what they believe and that is a good thing, and of course without followers, a leader doesn't have anyone to lead now does he? The problem with leaders is that sometimes they become so consumed in leading that they forget that they were once followers. And the problem with followers is that, half the time, they don't bother to fully question who or what they are following. In the nature of this world, things that quit growing die; so at some point if we are to continue in our spiritual growth, we must learn to both lead and a follow simultaneously.

Every person that has ever lived in this world was taught by someone or something. We do not fall onto this planet with wisdom and knowledge, it is a process gained through questioning that which already exists and our own personal efforts to understand things that we experience. A true leader will quickly acknowledge when he fails so that his followers will continue to grow, and a true follower understands that blind faith can be a dangerous thing. It's a fragile balance and one that too often has leaned toward tyranny and oppression rather than truth and freedom. If we honestly acknowledge that no man is perfect in himself, we come to the conclusion that we must actually do this together. There is no absolute right way. We all must learn and teach, relearn and re-teach and then learn and teach again until we die. Even then, our wisdom will not be supreme, whether we lead or follow there will always be someone behind us with a greater revelation towards the truth that we all seek.

SO WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?
I can only state my own opinion, based on my own faith, my own spiritual walk and my personal relationship with The Creator. Individually, we are only given a small part of the puzzle. We continually try and put this piece together with random parts that we have acquired throughout our experiences based on the way other people have played the game. The picture we have ended up with is not pretty, it makes no sense and in an effort to fix it, mankind keeps trying to shove all its gained knowledge into a nice little square. I just don't think everything is going to fit in the way we think it should and we frustrate ourselves in our efforts to make other's understand our own individual truth. Unfortunately, in the process of this continuing pattern I think that most religions have inadvertently lost their connection to the only piece that matters - the one and only Creator of this universe.

So where does that leave religion? Well, I guess that's for you to decide. Whether you see yourself as a leader or a follower, regardless of what you lead , or who you follow, you must ask yourself these two questions and answer them honestly: Where are you going and what is your ultimate purpose? That to me is what religion has always been. The answers are as different as the individual beings that ponder them, which they have been doing since the beginning of time.