Let’s look at cultural religion.  It is really kind of interesting when you give it some thought.  No two cultures that have ever existed have the exact same kind of religious beliefs that are, or were, part of its own culture.  And even nations that want to impose atheism as its formal religion do not practice and enforce it the same everywhere at the same time.

For Example, the Chinese and Soviet Union did not practice and impose their core atheistic religions in the same way or the same manner.  But why not though?  This is the interesting part.  Because even within a single culture, with a single language, in a close region of the map,… no large group of folks are going to see things the exact same way.         

You even had this in something like the Bible, with it describing the Pharisees and Sadducees.  There is no way to get everyone in one particular group to see everything the same.  Both happened to be practicing Jews, and both part of temple life,… but they simply did not see Judaism the same way.

When you take this same idea and translate it between whole cultures with different language and mind sets altogether,… then you really have something different.  It is like trying to compare American Christianity to Chinese Taoism.  Or Tibetan Buddhism to North Korean atheism.  Or African Voodoo to Zoroastrians (followers of Zoroaster or Zarathustra).  {Another monotheistic religion that no one ever hears much about,… it was around before Islam took over in that part of the world}

But there is something that all of these cultural religions have in common.  Actually there are several things all of these cultural religions have in common.  One of them is to enlighten the human to the idea that there is something much bigger than himself.  (in Communistic and atheistic cultures,… this would be the State, rather than the spirit world) Another is to keep some sort of rules and regulations, and law and order within the culture.

And yet another thing cultural religions have in common is that there is an innate, in-born need of all humans born with a fully functioning mind. This need is to be drawn by the really big questions in life. Things like, who the heck am I,... and what in the world am I doing here? Things like, where did I come from,... and how was I even made? Things like, what possible purpose could there be for me to even live out a lifetime amongst my peeps? And there is lots more of these too. I just do not feel like listing them all because it will take us from the explanation.

It is more than simply "likely" that you are going to stay within the confines of the kind of believing that you get from whatever cultural religion you were born into. A quick example of this is that if you were raised up on the idea that wearing a special kind of hat is important and tied to your cultural religious belief system,... then you will probably wear the hat for a good deal of your life.

This is because cultural religions are part of something that throughout history have been important in setting standards for behavior within any given culture. Then there is, was, and always will be, groups of people that are not satisfied with the mere cultural religion, and its traditions.

These are the true seekers of who and what the Life behind everything really is. We call this God,... by the way. These are also those who dare to know and to understand how the universe works and what is at the core of it all. Cultural religion for them (me) is like kindergarten in the world of religious understanding and spiritual experience. It is like primary school in the world where experience itself gains you the Phd. 

Cultural religion is great and wonderful in many cases,... and it is good that there is something there from long ago. But it is only a pointer,... and the first step of a thousand mile journey, when one is drawn to "knowing" of real Truth,... and how it all works. 

This is not to say that I personally do not advocate religious training,... because I do. But it is to say that this religious training of cultural religion gives you little to nothing, once you get beyond the idea of behavior in your culture and that there is a God someplace. Hardly the stuff of understanding the universe and how it all works. And hardly the place to grapple with universal real truth and its origins.