I'm not, at the moment, a religious person, though I am considering myself to be a spiritual person. The difference between the two is dogma. I don't believe in a specific dogma, but I do believe in God. Well, "God" is just a name that I use being that I grew up in a Judeo-Christian society. But, I do think that there is something to the Christian and Muslim mystics in the early years of their own developments.
I think a higher power exists, but exists in such a way that it really is impossible to tell anything about it. I think most religions today tend to anthropomorphize God, which I do think has it's merits, but I don't think it's necessary. In fact, I think people take it much too literally. I don't think God has a form or emotions or is even cognitive- at least the way we think "cognitive" to mean. Whatever is out there, I don't think it can be explained, but I do think it can be felt.
And this is where I shall rant a bit. I think a lot of religions are looking to connect somehow with God, but, I think most adherents to these religions just take their faith at face value. I think that they think they believe, but it's a fake belief. I really think that there is a way to really connect with God, but it takes so much more then just saying and believing. And I don't think that emotions and intellect are separate, in fact I think they are necessarily connected. And it is in this relation between the intellect and emotions where the connection to God lies. And I think that only by using intellect and emotion can you truely connect with what is out there.
But, unfortunatly (maybe fortunately) I'll have to be vague as to what to do to find the connection, because I think it's different for each person. I think just about every religion has validity in trying to find God, but I think they get caught up too much in other aspects which distracts from the ultimate goal. Prayer and meditation are essentially the same thing, and in my opinion a corner stone of being able to find the connection. If sitting in meditation with a clear mind helps you to find an inner connection then great, and if an intense concentrated prayer works for you, that's great too. To use an old adage "there are many paths to the top of the mountain". And I think this is true. To find God, there are infinate ways to go about it. What works for one person might not work for another, but both might be valid.
Actions are a third thing that must be taken into account. Actions, intellect, and emotions. All three are intimately tied, actions can very much enhance emotions. That is what rituals are all about. Mass prayer in church is a ritual, everyone does it at the same time and it's done in a certain way. Rituals envoke a certain emotional aspect in our minds and I think this can be used to search for the connection to God. And if you can make an emotional connection, then you've made an intellectual connection because with one comes the other.
I think the human mind is an amazing thing and we don't give it nearly enough credit for what it can do. Take the stigmata for example, we'll assume that it's psychosematic- someone believes in Christ so much that they get his wounds when he died. And the critics just seem to dismiss this as such. I personally think it's psychosematic (because at the moment I don't think Jesus was the actual, physical embodyment of God), but even if it is psychosematic, how amazing is our brain that through such a strong belief we can cause our skin to break open? The power of the mind I think is something no one has really given much though into tapping into, and I think that we need to do that to find the connection with God. Psychosematic stigmata show that intellect and emotions are intimately tied and can have real physical results. And anything that causes a belief that strong in someone, I think is a good thing. That's the kind of belief and emotional investment you need to find God.
Finding God is one of the most difficult things to do in life I'd imagine. But it's something I'm working on. I really feel that before I grow old and die, I'll find God and it will be amazing.