whats the difference between religion and spirituality?

Question

can you be religous and not spiritual

Answer 1

Religion is the consensus arrived at by a group of individuals about questions to do with God, Life and how humans should think, feel, behave and relate to each other within the context of their shared beliefs.

Spirituality is a constant, never-ending alignment with the divine within Self, others and all aspects of Life everywhere, such that the spiritual person is always growing in internal understanding and external expression.

Religion tends to stress rules, how-to's and differences that exist between the beliefs of the 'followers' of God that often leads to judgement and condemnation between religions. The extreme of this has manifested in religious wars and other forms of religious intolerance throughout human history.

Spirituality tends to stress the inclusiveness and connectedness between all aspects of Life. It lifts up the importance of having a divine, inner connection with 'That which is greater' than the individual consciousness and becoming and living at-one-ment with this Divine within Self and all Life.

The current evolution of humanity will progress to the point where the spiritual truths inherent within all religions will synthesize into a common, spiritual understanding of Who We Really Are as divine expressions of Life living in 3D physical form.

Until then, we will continue to experience situations where being religious does not necessarily mean being spiritual.
living life in a way that expresses the intrinsic connectedness between all aspects of manifest and unmanifest creation.

Great, eternal question! ;-)


Angela.

Answer 2

Ideally religion is a vehicle for spirituality. Unfortunately this is not always the case. A religion is basically an institutionalized set of beliefs and/or practices that provide a world view, meaning in life, and doctrine concerning super-mundane things. If its an "organized religion" then there are bodies dedicated to its practice. There might be a hierarchy of power.

I like to think of spirituality as a connection to something greater than anything that can be circumscribed by logic. Something that provides meaning and purpose that go beyond the mundane.

Answer 3

The difference between religion and spirituality, at least to me, is that spirituality is the private experience/seeking of the Divine, and religion is the outward social construct that some people engage in to realize their spirituality. So a person can be spiritual but not religious, and religious without being very spiritual.

Answer 4

Polemics.

What kind of spirituality is it if you're alone? People are only people in relationship to others. When people get together, the form rules, mores, customs, rituals, everything. It's part of being human. The truth is, you cannot have genuine spirituality without religion, and if a person is religious, then they will be genuinely spiritual. The two require one another.

When someone says "I'm spiritual but not religious" they're basically saying "I'm too good to follow anyone else, so I'm going to do my own thing." I find the sentiment to be rather dehumanizing even to the people that make it, and it is both a brash and cheap form of apologetics. It's a fast, easy way to make yourself better than someone else (they're just religious, but *I'm* spiritual.).

Answer 5

Yes, and you can be spiritual but not religious.

Plenty of people are religious in the sense that Jesus complained about the scribes and Pharisees. They make an outward show, but their hearts are not in it.

Plenty of people are also spiritual without being religious. My best example of this is the person on a personal spiritual quest. They may or may not settle on a single religion as representing their own relationship to the divine. I have only loosely done so. Or rather, I have created my own religion, loosely allied with a very loose category known as Wicca.

In short, I am a witch.

Answer 6

Religion is just a term. Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. are all religions. True spirituality is unifying yourself to the world. If you're religious, it doesn't necessarily mean you are spiritual. I have seen many Christian people who preach religious doctrine, but don't realize the unity of mankind. Being spiritual is understanding God and understanding life as it is. Also, religion has many other things like church, and traditions. Spirituality is endeavoring to connect with God.

Answer 7

Religion is following rules, like in the Jewish faith, keeping kosher, or in the Catholic faith, as in the confessional or saying the rosary. It is the belief in doing rather than in simply believing and having strong faith in God. Being a spiritual being is allowing the spirit of God to live within you and thereby affects your behavior, your lifestyle and your actions. You can absolutely be religious and not spiritual. Many people follow the "rules" of their religion, yet live lives void of honesty, integrity, compassion and charity.

Answer 8

Not really. Religion is nothing more than MAN'S view of God.
Spirituality is what is achieved through living one's life by a code based on what is believed to be an accurate interpretation of the Word of God WITHOUT human compromise.

Answer 9

confident there is. faith for the main area is a cult in a brilliant sense of the term. Spirituality is a deeper understanding of something larger than ourselves. an excellent form of human beings additionally deliver faith into the equation as being area of a faith. faith like spirituality is a deeper understanding of something larger than ourselves and believing in it with the sense that issues would be all top and that issues ensue for a reason. you do not choose a faith to be non secular or to have faith neither do you choose spirituality or faith to be non secular. and vice versa.

Answer 10

You bet you can. To me religion is about rules and idiotic dogma. Spirituality is about loving God and all that he created.