Religion v/s Spirituality

The film Religulous is a representation of how people has used religion as way of thinking their lives from an extreme point of view. Religion has been a controversial and dynamic topic since humanity`s foundation. It is a good example of how human beings have evolutioned or involutioned throughout history. Religion has changed into different practices from catholicism to scientology, adapting or mutating its own origin to cover human`s needs. The idea of being part of a religious circle confers people more mechanisms to survive in this world. Uncertainty has been the main object to take part of a common group that is living without any hopes, "unless you take part of it".

Religion has been adapted to create a common social framework, represented by a variety of religions or interpretations of that social framework. The idea of God has been determined restrictively. The majority of churches believe they have the truth, as a unique object, which promotes differences and conflicts which will affect in political and social areas. For instance, the historical struggle between Israel and Palestina is for territory but at the same time, it is potentialized by religion. Bill Maher, one of the brains of Religulous, argues that religion has done way more harm than good in the world(1-2). In this case religion has a negative connotation which minimize the idea that religion is the best path to live a better life where peace and equality could be their goals more than wars and conflicts. A spiritual leader called Stephen Knapp states that we need a common spirituality to congregates us in a positive and non-defined kind of religion(1-7). Universality is the concept that contains a general view to generate a global movement to reduce intelectual and physical battles.

Religion provoques different reactions depending on how passion someone puts on his/her dogma. In classes, students are a complex representation of different religions, for that reason, teachers need to be informed and objective when this topic takes part of the class, because it would be a good way of integrating reflection or the other way around, a complete chaos if the topic is not well guided. Religion as politics, represent big challenges when teaching is in charge of explaining them in an open and respectful environment.

Bibliography:

Gross, Terry."Bill Maher and Larry Charles, Getting Religulous". Interview with Larry Charles and Bill Maher. Fresh Air. NPR. 30 September 2008. 2 October 2008.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story/.php?storyId=95210724&ft=1&f=1008

Knapp, Stephen. " Spitirituality Beyond Religion". Stephen Knapp And His Books on Spirituality, Vedic Culture and Eastern Philosophy. 10 February 2006. 28 March 2009.

http://www.stephen-knapp.com/spirituality_beyond_religion.htm