Is there a difference between religion and spirituality? Yes, certainly, yet when you study it closely, you find it similar to the difference between all religions, all spiritual schools of thought, and all ideologies in general. But are religion and spirituality ideologies? Are they only sets of beliefs, or they contain higher knowledge, even in an equal amount? There is a continuous debate in this area, as what religion is true or what spiritual school of thought is better, or if it is better to be part of a religion or a school of thought. Yet what we seek throughout this study is to avoid all debates, only to be able to find all answers from a comprehensive perspective. What is religion? What is spirituality? What is the difference between religion and spirituality? And what exactly is meaningful to consider in both religion and spirituality from a higher perspective?
It is important to form a cognitive model capable to sustain both religion and spirituality in a single study and explanation, and this is exactly what this book does. Yet it feels impossible, since there is no other study to have ever succeeded in finding the ultimate explanation, the ultimate higher truth in this world, and to do so from a rigorous, comprehensive perspective. Or if there was, then you could finally see the end of all religious debates, conflicts, discrimination, and holly wars. Yet holly wars have material, social, and national interests many times, and cannot hold higher meaning.
But what exactly stops you from understanding religion and spirituality for what they truly are? Are there specific beliefs in this world or in any ideology condemning religion, spirituality, or both? And if you could ever be able to approach and understand religion and spirituality in one cognitive model, how would you structure it, and what ultimate truth would you expect to learn?
Is this even possible, for humans, through the human nature, with the human status, and through the human development, to accomplish a cognitive model for religion and spirituality? Are humans even allowed to do so, to think freely, and to use their reasoning in order to understand religion and spirituality? Wasn't this how the famous first couple got in trouble, by attempting to distinguish between good and evil on their own, in order to gain their own authority, control, management, and therefore freedom? And yet, isn't freedom the most treasured human achievement?
Throughout this book, we model the human condition, meaning, and experience here and in the wider world, explaining everything related to your wider existence, higher self, and higher meaning in life and in the wider world, in order to achieve a true understanding, a spiritual pathway, and a harmonious development and fulfillment in life and in the wider world.
