Ask Me Anything; “What is your opinion on organized religion?”

Hi everyone! It’s been a while, I’ve been busy with assignments, and, sorry to crash your dreams, but I do have a life outside of my blog as well

Today on Untap’d's, “Ask Me Anything”…

Adeela asks; “I was curious as to your opinions about organized religion. I know you said “I do adhere strongly to faith”, but that is different from following an organized religion. Nowadays many people have been shunning organized religion because they think it is corrupt. What would you say to those who will not attend a church/mosque/synagogue, etc. and will not develop their relationship with God because they believe the system is corrupt? Is it alright to avoid organized religion and just pray on your own in an environment that is more comfortable?”

To start off, I would like to say thank you, Adeela, for your l-o-n-g question.

Lately there have been many controversies thrown to the public regarding almost all religions. There seems to be a misconception of extremism, hypocrisy and what not, within organized religion. These religions are being targeted to questioning and accusations. There are people who think that organized faiths are out to achieve some sort of ruling power within the world- in simple words; to rule the world. I personally could not disagree more strongly with such thoughts and ideas.

First off, matters regarding faith are very sensitive, religion is extremely personal and should not be enforced on anyone. I believe all human beings have a different status of faith / attachment with God that they crave. Some people are living a happy life attached to organized religion, whereas there are also people living happy faith oriented lives without attending the church/mosque/synagogue on a regular bases.

I personally encourage people to attend their places of worship, ex: church, mosque, synagogue, because it builds a stronger relationship with God, and the religious community they are a part of. As humans, we crave the need to be socially accepted, rather than turning to dangerous means of acquiring social status, I feel it is safer to be attached to a community with similar beliefs.

As far as the people who refuse to go because they feel it is a corrupted system, I don’t understand why they would associate themselves with the faith, then refuse to go to the place of worship because they feel it is corrupt. A religion’s foundation is its place of worship.

“Is it alright to avoid organized religion and just pray on your own?” << Honestly, I don’t have an answer for that. As I said earlier, the spiritual aspect of religion differs from one human being to the other. Personally, I think having an organized religion is a place to go, something to lean on, a means of safety, not only physical but mental. But, I suppose the answer would vary from one person to another.

Summing things up, I don’t think blaming organized religion for today’s occurrences is logical. If religion did not exist, we would blame something else. You have to keep in mind, that religion is made up of people. It is the way we as humans enact upon the religion, do we chose to use it as a source of wisdom and aid to humanity? Or are we using it to our own filthy advantage? That is something depending on human itself, not religion.

Hope this helps!

(Feel free to share your opinion, as there is more than one right answer)

- Maria