I agree with several of you, there seems to be a lot of focus on “rules” in religions in general and whether someone is following what is written in a book or not.  For me it has always seemed a bit arbitrary which is  why i have had trouble committing to a religion.  I like the idea of just following one’s own spiritual path and not focusing on the “rules” all the time.

Also I am not sure all religions are beautiful flowers.  Some religions promote peace and that is a good thing.  But others seem to get caught up in not promoting peace and making it about whether everyone follows their rules.  If one doesn’t follow their rules, bad things can befall them.  So, with that maybe those religions are flowers with thorns, i don’t know… i just don’t think they are all beautiful if their purpose is to exclude people and do violent things when the rules aren’t followed.

so i have a little bit of a hard time with the statement that they are all beautiful flowers.  maybe they *could* be beautiful flowers as long as they stick to peace and bringing people together instead of the not so great aspects that i mentioned…

I also agree that there can be seperateness created by putting into groups when really we are all together.