“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.”(Albert Einstein)

I recently came across this quote from Albert Einstein. I thought it was interesting as my Husband and I have often had this discussion.

I don’t think organized religions; be it Islam, Christianity, Judaism,  have a role left to play in our lives today. They seem inept at addressing social and personal issues arising from a modern way of life. The focus of organized religions was around organizing society and bringing a civil order.

Now as societies have become civilized, individuals are no longer looking towards religion to answer questions pertaining to moral conduct, inheritance, nutrition, Science, etc. They need religion for personal growth, for spiritual development and organized religions seem to be lagging in the realm of individual spiritual growth. They have nothing more to offer other than religious theology and dogma.

Religion seemed to have outlived its original purpose. It is now struggling to  find a role for itself  in modern life: through fear, through terror, through religious clergy, through traditions, but is still unable to find  a well defined purpose for its existence. Extremism and fundamentalism are its last attempt to survive, to slow down the natural evolution and progression of civilization.

As the world and our lives become more global,  our problems just like our needs are no longer limited to geography, race or culture. We need an ideology that brings  people, cultures, races and humanity together.  Ideologies that build on commonalities rather than differences. How can ideologies that are too small to even share ‘their’ God, hold within them big solutions.

Religion was the product of a need: a need of a time, a need of a people and a need of a civilization. In the same way its demise is also the need of the people, a need of modern civilization and a need of humanity.

God and spirituality will continue to exist even without religion.