Is religion SOMETIMES confort and tradition then faith?

Question

it seems that way...

i mean ''than'' not ''then''


sorry typo....
i type very quick and i am also from Greece...i have very good excuses ;oP

Answer 1

The word "religion" refers to tradition and rituals done over and over again. What you want is Spirituallity and a personnal relationship with God.

Answer 2

No, it's always faith and faith in Jesus and the Word of God in acted in your life will bring you comfort and peace, never tradition. Hab 2:4 & Rom 1:17 say that the righteous shall live by faith. And if you read your Bible you will find other scriptures that say the samething.
Heb 11:6 says that it is impossible to please God without faith.
Read everything you can about faith [you can look in the back of your Bible or in Strongs] and you will understand that it is faith [or trust same as faith] maybe easier to understand trust. that it is Faith not comfort or tradition.
In Isaiah 30:15 it says that, This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
Hope this helps you, Rom 8:10-13 will also tell you more, please study and show yourself approved unto God.

Answer 3

Religion and faith in my opinion are almost 2 different things. Religion is what you do, faith is what you believe. So to answer your question, yes.

Answer 4

Yes. That is the good side of religion. Unfortunately people take it too far.

Answer 5

today i believe so.

people hold so tightly doctrines and forget that they need faith.

infact they are so bent on the teachings, that it seems they forget the main principals of their religion.

Answer 6

As a United Methodist (Protestant) pastor, I would say absolutely it can happen that way. Habits - including religious habits such as worship, prayer, rituals, reading scripture - can become a safe place, a comforting place for the spirit, even if in our mind we don't accept all that is said or symbolized.

I think faith enters when our experience of religion brings us in touch with a sense that we've been addressed by God, and now it is our position to answer. Religious experience in general is quite subjective and much conditioned by our training and upbringing. It may or may not involve faith which I take to be a more personal investment of ones own heart and soul and body.

I have a writer friend who fell in love with a young woman, but didn't tell her he loved her because he enjoyed having his "options" open and being in control of his life. He knew that once he spoke his love, everything would change. He would become vulnerable to her response. Would it be possibly rejection, scorn even? Or clingy dependency, or smothering attachment? Of course he dreamed of a healthy love being returned to him. But until he committed himself, he didn't have to worry about her response.

Then one day his lovely young woman took his chin in her hand, pulled his eyes to her own and declared artlessly, "W, I'm in love with you and I want to know what you're going to do about it."

My writer friend wrote later of a sense of terror that immediately gripped him because the tables had been turned. He was now the one addressed, and his own position was changed from being in control, to having to respond to a bold declaration of love.

I think we human beings are like that with faith. For a long while, we think it is we who are on a search for God - or we dismiss God, while enjoying the aesthetic comforts of cathedral and ritual and community. We dabble at it, learn the rhythms of religious life at the hands of our parents or religious instructors or priests. We usually think we are in control.

Then one day it occurs to us that the whole enterprise of religion does have to do with connecting to the Infinite, the Source, the Maker, Creator, Ultimate - whatever we conceive God to be. We begin to recognize that we have been addressed! No, more complicated than that - summoned! by a God who has declared a great love for us.

Our Creator has given us life and breath, a beautiful planet to call home, a conscience to remind us that meaning and truth is more than material abundance or survival, and, on a daily basis, incredible beauty to behold and savor (if we have eyes to see and ears to hear). It all suggests that we were made for some kind of connection or relationship with the Source of all beauty and truth.

Somewhere along the line we begin to realize that faith is not just receiving, just being comforted, participating in religious traditions or habits, but answering the call of the Maker of our hearts. Answering the call to know and participate in God's goodness and purposes.

I believe part of God's declaration of love for us involves an assignment - a partnership. (Aloneness/alienation is one of the saddest states!) We are called to participate in the divine purpose of redeeming the world and healing and loving and blessing all that God has created.

It's not about us. Faith is trusting that this declaration of love, and invitation to participate in an eternal and divine purpose, is true and more important than anything else in the world.

As a Christian, the best evidence I have is found in Jesus, who I take to be a unique visitation, a descending of God to be with us in our time and space, in our human flesh and experience. (Jesus is God's declaration of love to us, if you will - and God wants to know what we are going to do about it!)

I don't know who it is that wrote this question - male or female, young or old, believer, doubter or non-believer - but I took the question to be sincere. And since I just signed on to this site for the first time minutes ago, and am leaving to visit Greece and Turkey in two weeks, your question caught my eye.

God bless you!
UM Pastor from Pennsylvania, USA

Answer 7

I think that religion causes more angst than comfort.

Answer 8

it's a little bit of both for some people

Answer 9

Yes, that is what religion truly is.

Answer 10

Not sometimes, closer to always.