Groups > Spirituality and Consciousness

In sociological terms, a religion can be defined as the routinization of the customs and folkways of a community that emerged out of the charismatic leadership of a figure who had demonstrated a convincing claim to a relationship with some transcendent principle/the Divine/God. These routinized behaviours have become for the most part empty rituals far removed from whatever power their original use conferred, and they are regulated and dominated by the priestly caste to exert social power over the lesser, mystified communicants. In spite of this ossification and exploitation, in most of the surviving messages of the religions' founding prophets, a vital pulse continues to draw sincere seekers toward various personal transformations, some of whom go off to form their own charismatic groups or communities. And so the cycle resumes, renewed....

Thanks DP...wonderfully put...now, can the cycle be broken...I think going off to form yet another spin off translates into one more division in humanity...these divisions are tearing us apart...

warmly,

Kenny