'My life is in the hands of myself, not Heaven!'

I wouldn't call Taoist practice a religion because religion involves worship within an organization. All the previous Taoist luminaries, on the contary, went away from the world and carried out their spiritual practice in seclusion. Once they've obtained enlightenment, none of them set themselves up as leader of a temple or organization of any sort. They passed their teaching only to a selected few who were deemed worthy for true knowledge.
The twin cultivation of mind and body practiced in the Taoist spriritual alchemy has the aim of delivering the practitioner from suffering of life and death. ''My life is in the hands of myself, not Heaven'' as a Taoist luminary put it. Such a postive atitude to life seems to form such a contrast to the Christian belief that as 'sinners', individuals have no salvation in this life other than turning to the Messia in the hope of being raised into Heaven after death.
Contary to the common belief that the Taoists show indifference to the world, all the luminaries showed a great compansion to the sufferings of mankind. Consider the following opening passage to ''Understanding Reality'' (Wu Chen Pian in Chinese) by the Ming Dynasty adept, Chang Po tuan:-
        
Alas!It is such a blessing to obtain a human body yet so easy to pass the years like a flash of light. Once one's lived out his lifespan, there's nothing but his karma awaiting him. Instead of awakening to reality, all he does is lingering for death to befall him... Laotze and the Buddha thus sort to deliver teach people from birth and death through their teachings on life and essence [body and mind].
--- [translated by the author]