It has been so strange to start my adult life as an agnostic, even an atheist, and in looking at major religions, knowing that all man-made religions are wrong,… and yet end up being surer than ever that there is a higher power, a source that has connected everything that ever was and ever will be.

That is not to say that our religious icons did not, do not, exist. Jesus, Buddha, Shiva, Mohammad, all of them are very real. They just didn’t ask or need to be worshipped (though they deserve our respect). We’re the ones who created the cults and wrote the books saying they did. Their intention was, and still is, to help. To help elevate us. To help us let go of anger and hate and pain and shame and all of the things and beliefs and feelings that distance us from this source of pure love. They offer help whether or not you “believe in” them.

(I’m sure there are beings out there that do want to be worshipped – to me, that’s a sign for me to stay away. But it occurs to me that most religions focus on an icon that doesn’t need your worship. It is the authorities within those religions who benefit from it).

I’m left with really mixed feelings about organized religions. Buddhism is, to me, the one that has retained the most purity of message and intent, but like anything left in the hands of humans for thousands of years, it’s gone a bit off course too. And don’t get me started on the Abrahamic religions whose very intent is to divide us rather than to bring us together, to foster intolerance rather than love, by making non-believers the enemy and insisting there is only one path to the truth (One that you will not find following their faiths) and that everyone else is going to “hell.”

I’m trying to see that they serve a purpose, that despite the harm some of them cause, they still intend to bring people closer to that universal consciousness, that “holy spirit.” That many people in our modern world would not find that connection without the structure of religion and the familiarity of a paternal god figure. And that in addition to causing harm, it can help those who have become cut off from the divine.

I guess the point of my ramble is, for those of you who are disenchanted with the religion(s) you have tried, or who have viewed religion as a fraud… if despite this you still feel any faith that there is something greater at work in the universes, please do not give up. Please do not think that you need to have a church, or an intermediary, or even a particular belief system. You have direct access to Spirit because it’s already part of you. If everyone was could find that connection, our world could surpass any idea of “heaven” you’ve ever had.