The birth of any Religion is a mysterious occurrence and how it propagates is still more mysterious. Human beings throughout the ages have sought power by forming groups and religion has provided enough encouragement to form groups with common beliefs and practices Religions have sought to enlarge the strength of their group by adding many adherents.Beyond a critical number; the original religion splits into fragments and these fragments in their turn declare themselves as true and the other fragments as false. Usually a great animosity develops between these groups and bloodshed is very common. Killing persons to save them is a common refrain. The paradox is either ignored or not understood as a paradox. Both sides declare themselves as Guardians of truth and with vehemence protect something which cannot be protected. Truth cannot be preserved because it changes continuously. What changes continuously cannot be protected.

An individual embracing any religion voluntarily surrenders himself to some other individual who assumes the robes of a final authority regarding the beliefs and practices of that particular religion. This is common to all religions. All religions follow certain books which are thought as unalterable and word of God. God creates us and god gives books but apparently God does not give us any authority to rewrite the books.

Fear of the future is the plank on which authorities in religions base their authority. They insist that unless the people behave in such and such way God will get angry and punish them as if they know and as if only they have some communication with God. People do not want to be responsible for their own future so they put themselves under this authority and allow it to manipulate them.

All religions of the present era can make a contribution to each individual. All religions have this capacity to influence human life and they have done it sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse. We must individually choose or discard elements in various religions to suit our own individuality.

Introduction of awful ideas like : -

Sin, heaven and hell, superiority and inferiority, Anthropomorphic God
There is no denying the fact that the origin of this universe is a mystery. One who tries to fathom this mystery with complete assurance of a failure is a mystic. This attempt is its own reward. Why are we balking to get this reward when it is there on the platter? To dilute this mystery with pathetic ideas of an anthropomorphic god is not right. If this universe is there with its black and white & high and low & straight and crooked who are we to term something as right and something as wrong? Something has to be right and something has to be wrong because both these things complement each other. The only problem is we cannot know which is which. Rather than humbly accepting this fact people have assumed authority to tell lay population what is sin.

Suppression of women : -

Every religion has suppressed women apparently simply out of fear and more amazing is the fact that women have willingly undergone this suppression. The intuitive capabilities of women are always threatening to logic oriented men psyche and thus their conclusions coming out of their intuitive faculties are always qualitatively magical. When everything indicates that things are going in a particular direction a woman simply predicts something exactly opposite and when this happens male is terrified. Such a woman becomes dangerous to his authority. Males in their utter stupidity have used their superior physical power and have killed such women as witches rather than utilizing their intuitive capabilities.

Human beings are divided into men and women. Both are given special tools to enhance their existence. Males are given logic and females are given intuition. No religion has devised methods to use these capacities to each others advantage which is referred nowadays as intelligent cooperation as a Toltec concept. All religions have preferred to limp with the help of logic only keeping the other leg lame. Establishment of institutions for prayers

Once the enlightened person is dead; progressively less enlightened people take over the religion and start interpreting the original sayings to the ruin of followers of that religion.
The original enlightened soul comes in contact with other souls and his enlightenment rubs on them. During his life his teachings are live and meaningful. Once he is dead even the life in his teachings withers away although a bit more slowly that his body. Any dead body stinks if not disposed off properly. The same happens with words but the stink is spiritual and thus less appreciated as such.

The less enlightened followers help spreading the stink around when the essential thing is to stop interpreting the enlightened person’s teachings. The moment one interprets; one is judgmental and thus away from the original meaning and portent. Slowly the words also age; their meaning changes down the ages and the teachings cease to be relevant. Even after this happens religious authorities cling to these teachings as they have nowhere to go and no personal power to invent contemporary teachings.

Basically religions have tried to address the problem of health. In this respect religions have many procedures mostly for body cleaning, some mentally oriented procedures like chanting and some ostensibly spiritually oriented practices. Religions have failed in all these three aspects for various reasons. The most important reason being standardization of these procedures disregarding individual requirements. The second is without understanding the usefulness of pain as a kind of warning instituting painful procedures. The third is disregarding body as something sinful in itself or as something which is not of much consequence because of its aging and death. As the era changes so change the requirements of the human body mind and spirit. Adhering to the age old practices does not help anybody. These practices need constant modifications. By that time the orthodoxy has its stranglehold on followers and anybody who dares to change any content of the religion is charged of heresy and eliminated in a way whichever is convenient.

For example down the ages sexual pleasure is one of the foremost cravings of human beings. Sexual health is a most intimate form of health and it can only be achieved if both the partners are physically, mentally and spiritually healthy. Religions, rather than addressing this most enjoyable aspect of life, have tried to suppress it to the extent of declaring it sinful. Poisoning this immensely pleasurable activity has violent consequences. Any sexually suppressed individual is very violent. Every reader of this statement should observe himself or herself before coming to any conclusion regarding this statement. Anybody who tries to address this problem is derided as pervert.

Appreciation of human body in various religions is to the extent of leaning it. Some religions have some rituals to purify the human body without understanding the interdependence of purity and impurity in human body. Human body is a verb and not a noun; in the sense it is a continuous change. It does not remain pure it does not remain impure; it vacillates. Human body requires a wonderful combination of its sensory and motor characteristics and it is healthy. Again healthy is also a verb and not a noun. It needs a very individualized management.

Religions violent with human body are violent with other religions as a masochistic person can easily be a sadist.

Unaware about awareness : -

Apparently religions are blissfully unaware of something called awareness and they are not even aware that they are unaware. This is a fairly convoluted statement to say the least. The introduction of awful ideas like an anthropomorphic god, sin, heaven, hell etc people have no chance of becoming aware. Awareness is simply continuous, simultaneous, nonjudgmental and total perception of internal and external environment. Any judgmental attitude towards creation dims the glow of awareness.

We have to be Spiritual and not religious.
We must strive to be spiritual and not religious. When body and mind are perfectly tuned the spirit emerges as a melody emerges out of a wonderful combination of notes. There is nothing else to spirituality. A painful body and a sorrowful mind cannot be spiritual

Individual must assemble his own religion.
There are many practices in present religions which can be of benefit to many people. However people look with suspicion on any idea that belongs to "other" religion and do not use it even if it were useful to them. Internet has fortunately made every single present day religion accessible to us. We must study all these religions and assemble our own religion. To outsiders it may look like a car assembled by putting different parts of different makes together but it will work for you like an ergonomically designed, customized car.

World peace can come through individualized religion : -

Condemning any religion for the world problems is a mistake because such condemnations come out of a judgmental attitude which in itself shows lack of awareness. All of us must slowly divest ourselves of any external signs imposed on us by the religion we were born in. We must become mystics in discovering the mystery of this universe and help each other to choose his or her own path. Religions have tried their best as a group approach but apparently it has not worked. World is becoming more and more uncomfortable to live in. Let us come together for celebration of life till we are here and leave this place in better shape. Let's be spiritual and not religious.