Understanding Religion

Historically, religion is the venerated source for answers to the great mystery of life questions that hauntingly preoccupy humanity and are considered too difficult to be answered otherwise.  The advantage religion has in answering these unanswerable questions is that it is not limited to what is known.  It has the advantage of being able to exploit the incredible human capacity to fill in the vague and missing pieces in what is known with things that have simply been accepted as belief.  

This heavy reliance on belief can ultimately become a problem.  This problem is compounded by the extreme diversity of religious perspectives that shapes their many beliefs.  The world is home to a multitude of religions, and each of these religions has multiple sects each with their somewhat different religious interpretations.  All these many groups think the things they hold as beliefs are correct, and everyone else is wrong.  

With all these different beliefs about so many things that matter, how does one choose the correct religion?  Reviewing the merit of all these individual religions and their many sects might seem like an impossible task, but at a high level, most of these religions and their many sects can be reduced down into either of the two very broad categories that have historically been designated as Western and Eastern.  

The terms Western and Eastern in this context simply refers to the general geographic points of origin of these various religious tradition which has made them historically, culturally, and theologically distinct.  After centuries of intermingling and sharing of ideas between cultures, both Western and Eastern religious traditions can be found in all parts of the world today, but the fundamental difference between the two different religious approaches is still very apparent.  

The fundamental difference between eastern and western religions is the clear distinction between how the religions in each category advocate spiritual progress.   

Western religions are based on faith. Followers are expected to believe on blind faith what they are told to believe by religious leaders who have assumed the responsibility for sorting out all the spiritual details to be spoon fed to the masses of followers.  On close examination however, many of these religious answers are filled with inconsistencies, missing big pieces of the story, and things that just don't ring true.    

Instead of faith, eastern religions are more focused on spiritual growth through introspection, practice, and study.  Eastern religion rituals and personal practices (e.g. meditation and asanas postures) promote personal spiritual growth on the path to spiritual enlightenment. In these eastern religions, the aspirant is more focused on seeking and finding salvation rather than simply holding some belief of faith and expecting salvation to find them.

These high level, specific ideological differences between western and eastern religions has a significant impact on each religion's ability to support the search for the Ultimate Truth. 
Those who are about discovering the truth will be drawn to the Eastern religions.  Those who want to believe what someone else has told them to believe is the truth will be drawn to Western religions.

In reality, life is a spiritual journey of self discovery that spans many lifetimes to complete.  As such, it must be lived actively questioning all things, rather than being slavishly bound to blind faith obedience and stale outdated dogma.  In the context of discovering the Ultimate Truth, the eastern religious approach is superior and will ultimately as one's spiritual journey advances become the approach of choice.

As it turns out though, you really don't need affiliation with any religion.  All you need is the correct and relevant knowledge that a religion might be able to offer because ultimately you alone are responsible for validating the things that you believe.  You alone are responsible for your own salvation.