We have choices, there are a multitude of different religious flavors available and I used to think that was a good thing, now I’m not so sure.
All of the Abrahamic religions are ancient religions defining morality, societal norms and spiritual beliefs based on cultures that no longer exist – except perhaps the middle east.
Should our spirituality be defined by mostly extinct white men in dangerously misogynistic societies, where spirituality was based on fear of a god who may actually have been a weather pattern they didn’t understand? The wrath of god was a drought or a flood or a sandstorm that they didn’t understand. Yet 2000 years later women are still legally discriminated against under the guise of 1st amendment “freedom of religion” i.e. freedom of discrimination that is above the law?
These same men walk around looking ridiculous in “vestments” from the middle ages under the same guise of religious tradition. And the same religious traditions are against the law in civil society are some how protected?
We are so indoctrinated by the cults of Christianity, Judaism and Islam that it is imbedded in our DNA. It takes a momentous effort to break free as it does from any cult. These religions have perfected their cult like behavior and have it down to a science. Get them when they are young, create fear, habitualize their behavior through ritual they eventually find comforting, reinforce with community support and presto! You are stuck like a fly to fly paper.
The single most important thing to advance women’s rights and standing in the world is to rid our societies of religion. It shouldn’t be protected under the law, men have used the Bible and the Koran to victimize women for centuries. And it won’t stop until we break free and own our own spirituality.
Am I spiritual? You bet, I broke away from the Catholic Church after being a studied and devout Catholic for more than 20 years of my adult life. 20 wasted years. Now my spirituality is based on the cycles of nature and alignment with it. There is so much to be learned about spirituality from nature, you can get the same sense of the sacred in nature that I used to love and yearn for in a large cathedral. It is beautiful and authentic.
Meditate with trees, follow the wheel of the year and it’s land based celebrations. It is freeing and it is real. And nature does not discriminate.
