Religion vs. Theosophy

While the term religion encompasses many different beliefs, theosophy is a mystic philosophical look on religion and its incorporation in everyday lives. Theosophy was created in 1875 by the Theosophical Society with the belief that an integrated life with religion, spirituality, science, and philosophy would lead to an Absolute God. Religion is the generalized term given to a set of beliefs as to what one considers spiritual and sacred. There are indigenous religions, derived of cultural groups, and world religions. Recently there has been increased attention towards new age religions which are newly developed practicing faiths.

Religions are separated into different groups, such as Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism. Each religion has its own beliefs, teachings, and ideas of reaching a spiritually higher place. Theosophists believe that each religion has beliefs which will ultimately lead to a higher power. They believe some Catholic teachings, some Buddhist teachings, even some Baptist teachings, all with the idea that it is a way to the absolute leader of all religions. While there is no right or wrong religion, those who are religious typically feel the religion in which they belief is spiritually the way to enlightenment, paradise, or heaven. Each religion also has a symbol which represents their denomination, including crosses or the star of David. Theosophy is similar in that they too have a distinct symbol, however this incorporates the symbols of other religions in different ways. Underneath this mixture are the words ‘There Is No Religion Higher Than Truth’.

The number of religious followers is much larger than that of theosophists. The largest religious denominations include Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism with well above a billion followers for each. Theosophy followers have a much smaller group of followers, member numbers are in the thousands. The theory of evolution is varied between religions and theosophy. Each religion has a different idea on how the earth and mankind became what it is today. Theosophy has a seven step process which incorporates mythology, the cosmos, and spirituality to create the universe. Additionally, theosophy has three objectives followers believe in order to help reach their divine self. The objectives are to create an equal society among all, investigate all nature has to offer, and encourage the study of science and philosophy. Religion does not have three main objectives across all denominations.
While there are some similarities between religion and theosophy, the differences definitely outweigh the similarities.

Summary:
1.Religion is a person’s spiritual belief of what is sacred. Theosophy is the philosophy of the incorporation of religion, science, and virtue.
2.Religions are separated into different groups (Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.). Theosophists believe in certain teachings from various religious groups.
3.Those who believe in a religion outnumber theosophy followers.
4.Evolution is a seven step process for theosophy followers. For religious followers the theory of evolution varies across all different denominations.
5.Theosophy has three main objectives to obtain in life. Religions each have different objectives for followers to obtain in life.

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