Religions become an block in your spiritual growth. Yes, you can have one without the other. But you will not because everyone has the free will choice to chose who or what they want to serve or believe in or not. While they are deciding on who it is they are colecting information on an conscious level and on an spiriual level they maybe learning. Only time will tell.

Picking Christianity, since I believe that Jesus was/is God, there is a patern of the whole that matches the patern of the individual. In the begining, God created man (and woman). Then man taste the judgement of good and evil and was cast out of the Garden of Eden, the fall of man. Along the way, Abraham was able to connect with God and built a relationship that was passed on to his childeren and his children's children, including Isaac and Jacob. Throught this relationship grew practices that bonded man with God. These practices, over the years became religion and through man's desire for power, distorted and manipulated, the truth being hidden from the people. People were so afraid of God, they needed a priest or a prophet to talk to God for them. Then Jesus came and showed people that they had power, demonstrating it to the people and telling them that they too could do these things. Jesus showed us that we can overcome 'evil' with our faith. He taught that if we had the faith of a mustard seed we could tell a mountain to move and it would jump into the ocean. Jesus demonstrated these things in many ways. Even tearing the veil to the Holy of Holies to physically prove to the people that they could have direct access to God. Over the years, the practices that were taught became religion rather than relationship. Leaders again, through man's desire for power, distorted and manipulated, the truth being hidden from the people. It seems that every 2,000 years, there is a major change in the timeline of Christianity. (I am NOT saying that the world was created 6,000 years ago.) Here we are 2,000 ish years from the time of Jesus. There seems to be a major shift in consciousness that has been predicted. (The internet has helped to spread I am sure.) This time not only do we have physical access to God, but we are realizing that we are not even separate from God. In this process, we become aware of our ability to create our world, however far that expands. People are discovering techniques and rituals to bring results faster. This has the potential to become a religious practice, opening the door for people again, through man's desire for power, to distort and manipulate the truth hiding it from the people.

Now, like this timeline, man is born a baby, everything is good. Then one day, the person starts having negative thoughts and emotions (knowledge of good and evil). These negative thoughts and emotions separate us from God (the fall of man). They cause disease, pain, ailments in our physical body. (wailing and gnashing of teeth) One day, we realize that our thoughts and emotions are causing the pain and ailments and that if we change our thoughts and emotions (repent), we can be healed of the pain and ailments and live in a world of peace and love and joy (heaven, Garden of Eden). This is the truth that the religious leaders have kept hidden as a secret. It is the power of God in us.

In the Christian Church, they include accepting Christ as our savior in here. Which He is, but they changed the whole meaning so that we don't beleive we have the access to God that Jesus promised us. We are joint heirs of His kingdom. The church has become distorted and puts the pastor as a mediator between God and man. The church has created doctrines, so many that there are different denominations. They have created ritual where there should be relationship. They have once again separated man from God. Jesus said that He is the way, the door, etc... But they have redecorated the door with false doctrines and distractions from the truth. Jesus didn't mean that everybody has to invoke the name of Jesus on everything. But the Church has put Jesus, God, salvation, in a box and it has become, in my opinion, idolotry. Rather than worshiping God, they worship an ideal of Him that they created. It is these idols that we are warned not worship. The door that Jesus refers to is not the manmade door the Church built, but it is found in His words and teachings.