"Getting Religion"

Religion is a cultural attempt to approach God, to approach the Divine, to approach Soul. That is all it is, and to confuse it with either of these is like confusing an image with the thing being imaged, or da Vinci's "Last Supper" with Christ himself. There are those who argue for religion and never get this, and there are those who argue against religion and
never get this. I'm for Religion, so I'll address this.

Soul doesn't evolve really, for it's already eternal, but mind evolves, culture evolves, so religion evolves as well. One would hope. Any religion, whatever the culture or geographical placement or history, which does not view the mere notion of slavery and holding slaves as unthinkable, and its practice as the antithesis of its own Teaching, has not yet arrived at being rightly called Religion. Any religion which foments bigotry, supremacy over others, strife and violence – even while, or especially while, lulling its apologists or its target audience with phrases like "peace" and "peaceful" - cannot rightly be said to have evolved to being a Religion.

Any religion which has failed to teach, to demonstrate and to get across to all hearers, from the most simple person to the most sophisticated thinker: that God is Love, that Soul is nothing but That; that Religion, if it is worth its salt, draws us toward and binds us to that very Love, embracing all souls, seeing ourselves in all embodied sentient Beings – with whichever cultural phrasing one cloaks this – arousing in each more empathy, more lovingkindness, more compassion, and out of this: more wisdom - any religion which has failed to do this has not evolved to the place of being Religion.

Some will find this redundant, or offensive or silly. Do I care? I'm concerned only with conforming my life and breath to what I just asserted. So wherever this shoe fits, let it be worn.