What is the difference between spirituality and religion?

Question

I myself never thought of myself as being very religious, but my sense of right/wrong and living life in line with nature peacefully, respect and love is far more sensitively developed than a lot of ppl who claim to be religious around me.... would you classify that as spiritual?

Answer 1

Spirituality means analyzing and being very philosophical about everything you think and do in your life. Spiritual people tend to be good and thoughtful souls...

Religions are mostly void and lacking of logic and mostly out of touch with reality. Spirituality can embrace knowledge and history and make thoughtful decisions based on all information available including parts of one or more religions.

Religion is very stuck and static in it's teachings. Religion can not change or be modified once it is instituted. So religions often struggle to hold onto their teachings even though we all live in a changing and dynamic world where new knowledge and discoveries render the religious teachings of the past relics of our ignorant history.

Religions used to be able to make laws protecting their teachings. For hundreds of yeads it was illegal to say that the world was not flat that is an example of religious dogma....

[;-)

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Answer 2

Very good question. I used to think they were one in the same. But recently I have come to the conclusion that while they can work together, they are different.

Often times I believe people confuse spirituality with professing to be christian or affiliated with some "specific" religion. The term spirituality means several things...

1. the quality or fact of being spiritual.
2. incorporeal or immaterial nature.
3. predominantly spiritual character as shown in thought, life, etc.; spiritual tendency or tone.
4. Often, spiritualities. property or revenue of the church or of an ecclesiastic in his or her official capacity.

1. The state, quality, manner, or fact of being spiritual.
2. The clergy.
3. Something, such as property or revenue, that belongs to the church or to a cleric. Often used in the plural.

1. property or income owned by a church [syn: spiritualty]
2. concern with things of the spirit [ant: worldliness]

Everyone has a spirit within them whether they profess a religion or not and when you are in tune with your spirit one can be spiritual without being religious.

Do I think that someone should not explore living in Christ just because they are spiritual, that's another question. I believe in Freewill which gives everyone the option to come to their own conclusions. No one should be force fed any particular religion or set of beliefs. Personally, I am a christian and God bless the child that has his own (sound mind and knowledge to make their own decisions).

Answer 3

Matthew 7:21-23 clearly states that not everyone that claims to be religious will enter into heaven. The part where he says, "For I never Knew you" that word 'knew' in the original language would translate to 'knew you intimately' You can be religious, but not have a relationship with God, as well as a good person who respect and love despite not being a religious person. Two opposite positions, however both may not lead to eternal life.

God doesn't grade on a curve. If we were to be judged on how good we are, there will always be someone who was one good deed short -- and that's not really fair. What God did is to eliminate the scales that weigh good and bad. "For all have sinned, and all fall short of the glory of God." But at the same time made redemption easy, "For the wages (payment) of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus" How hard is it to accept a gift? Accepting this gift of life through Jesus, where you live a life where you intimately know Jesus, and he knows you. That's salvation.

Answer 4

I would define religion as the actual duties owed to God out of justice (as embodied in prayer, sacrament, and liturgy), whereas, spirituality would be defined as the various sentiments and acts of the will and of the heart that should be the basis for our religious actions.


So given those definitions, religion without spirituality is dead ritual, and spirituality without religion would be lacking the proper discipline, which may lead to confusing one's own personal desires with the will of God.

I would say that you need both.

As a Roman Catholic, this is what my Faith contains when properly practiced - I have seen both dead ritual (which is rife with some conservatives, rattling along with their Rosaries mechanically with no heart or love of God put into it - God is no more pleased with jumping through hoops than he is with dogs uselessly barking), and spirituality that thinks that it can dispense with all the rules - both are opposite errors on each side of the truth, and both cause serious problems when practiced - I have seen that myself.



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Answer 5

**********Religion revolves around worshiping a GOD. Spirituality revolves around respecting all living things. "Success" in religion involves following certain rules and conditions (many of which seem irrational, illogical, and counterproductive to me and many people not of that particular religion). Success in spirituality involves working for the GREATER GOOD of the WHOLE GROUP not just those who share your beliefs.

How much closer would we be to world peace if all religions were abandonded and "SPIRITUALITY" and "HUMANISM" were promoted instead? Think about it.

Answer 6

Religion, in my opinion is a list of rules to follow, it becomes tradition and repetitious. Spirituality to me is the quality of the life you live and the evidence of that life.

Answer 7

Religions have a shared, running theme through them (with one or two exceptions), and theme is that there is only one God, and that God is the creator of all time and space, galaxies, stars, planets, humans, and dirty socks...
Spirituality can be all of the above, or none of the above, or whatever your own experience tells you about this crazy universe you find yourself existing in, and spirituality focuses on the life force that animates us, rather than any creator of that force...
Spirituality means great sex...
Religion...
Not so great...

Answer 8

There is no difference. The distinction between religion and spirituality is simply an expression of modernity's claim that faith (or what modernity construes as "religion") is a subjective phenemona that is entirely oriented by the individual. The modern understanding of what a religion is has been created by modernity as a means toward ideology critique and an attempt to categorize a certain type of cultural reality. Whatever one conceives as one's personal "spirituality" in always positioned by "religion". As far as your expression of right and wrong, etc, it has far more to do with the cultural influence of Immanuel Kant (catagorical imperative and the sense of the aesthetic sublime: "the moral law within me and the starry skies above me.") than anything that has to do with either spirituality or religion. Better than calling yourself "spiritual" you should call yourself a "Kantian" or a "modern."

Answer 9

They are polar opposites, like hot or cold, dark or light.

Spirituality is an open connection with God so It can teach you what you have come here to learn.

Religion pretends to be spiritual but it is a confining narrow set of rules and regulations that tells you what you should be thinking, rather than teaching you how to think for your self.

love and blessings Don

Answer 10

Religion is spirituality with rules, or dogma. Often there is clergy.
There is always a 'book' or set 'tasks' and there are always things you cannot do, or rituals [such as mass] that you have to perform. Often there is a promise of reward or punishment.

spirituality is the same connection to the 'universe' if you like, but there are no rules, therefore no threats or rewards, and often no clergy.