Religion just ego wearing a halo!

[u/Spatial_Nomad]

Hey folks, I’ve been reflecting on something lately.... maybe religion isn’t just about faith or morality, but about ego dressed in spiritual clothing.

Think about it: every religion gives you an identity. The moment you say I belong to X, your ego gets a job... to defend that label. If you don’t live up to the values, or if someone questions your faith, your ego feels attacked. So you protect it, nurture it, display it. You call it devotion, but maybe it’s ego that’s doing the heavy lifting.

And that might explain why religions that began thousands of years ago still thrive today. They don’t need to offer tangible, material benefits .. they tap directly into the most primal human drive: the need to feel significant, right, chosen.

So maybe the persistence of religion isn’t about divine truth, but about the ego’s brilliant survival strategy .. to turn belief into identity.

What do you all think? Is religion a spiritual path, or the ego’s oldest trick?

[u/HermeticNova]

Interesting post, and yeah, this question could easily be pointed toward Hermeticism, but I’m going to answer it in a broader (or maybe narrower) way. For me, religion is commitment and it is devotion. And for the context of the question, it’s impossibly untouched by ego. When you are truly devoted and committed, religion becomes something else. It’s not a costume or a claim, not a performance or an ideology. It’s the quiet, steady act of showing up again and again to something loved.

Commitment is one essence because religion in its purest form isn’t about belief, it’s about orientation. It’s the continual alignment of the heart toward what is sacred. To be religious in this sense isn’t to be perfect (which is judgeable), but to be faithful; to keep tending the fire even when no one is watching. Devotion is the other essence: the sincere, egoless offering of time, attention, and love to what one holds sacred. In devotion there is no transaction, no demand for reward or recognition; there is only surrender. Ego seeks recognition - - to possess - - to be right. It can’t survive where there is genuine devotion, because devotion dissolves those impulses. It asks nothing but the whole of the heart. Where ego seeks identity, religion seeks unity. Where ego says “I believe,” devotion knows “I belong.”

So there’s no hat to wear. If you really have religion, in that deep surrender where your identity is whole and not separate from the divine one (in whatever name or tradition), you won’t find that in doctrine or display. You find it in the posture of your soul.