Spirituality came before religion?

Question

How can people say this, I just asked a question about religion and spirituality and everyone said that spirituality came before religion. They said Jesus Christ was spiritual... He was Jewish, which is a religion. But even before the jews and other major monotheistic religions, there were religions that praised the sun and praised multiple Gods. If spirituality is just defining your own religious beliefs, wouldn't that just be Buddism without the beliefs in its prophets?

Answer 1

Because before Christ, before Moses, people worshipped the spirits of the forest, or of the air. It's called animism, and it's the oldest religion going. It's what all religions, faiths and beliefs stem from. The concept that there is something more, and that we are more than we can see.

[EDIT]
I find it very interesting that the two people that have pointed out that animism is older than any religion have received the thumbs down. Sorry ... just pointing out the facts, if the people handing these out can't accept that then maybe these people shouldn't be on an open debate forum.

Answer 2

The problem comes in trying to separate the two ideas. Spirituality is anything pertaining to things of a spiritual nature (that is, anything that is not material - of this world). Religion is a set of beliefs that are all about the cause, nature and purpose of the universe.
You could easily say that spirituality came first, however it really is irrelevant. Religion on the whole comes out of spiritual ideas. The big 5 religions are all based on spiritual ideas. Islam says there is one God (spiritual idea). Hinduism says there are many God's (also spiritual). Judaism and Christianity are the same - they come from this spiritual idea as well. Every religion really comes from the idea that there is something more than this world.

So which came first? Well either one could have. Spirituality could have led to formation of religion. Or perhaps religion reveals spirituality.

I guess the bigger question is, does your religion or spirituality tell you the truth about this world?

Answer 3

listen spirituality has little to do with religion. religion is practiced by man, spirituality is a true connection with yourself and god so ones must beleive before there was religion which was meant to serve god, there must have been spirituality. the bible says tru religion is takin care of widows and orphans. you seem like you have many questions and thoughts running thru your mind why is this question so important to you are you goin threw a struggle in your own heart. is there something yur seeking but cannot find. ill tell you the truth the only answer is christ without him you will search forever. my best advice to you my friend is to get to know god for yourself because you wont find him in questions that have no end or meaning he only can be found in your heart if you want to know he is real you must choose to abandon yourself and the world that you have created around you to find him... the question is how bad do you want to find him. the number one thing that most people fear is surrendering ... are you willing to surrend your life to god.... if the answer is no youll never fnd the answers you are lookin for.. if yes then all you have to do is believe that jesus is lord, ask for forgiveness, and surrender yourself to him.

Answer 4

Your question is unclear. They aren't speaking in a time sense about Christ, they are speaking of his state and condition before he began Christianity/his teachings. Pagan and nature religionists predate all others in time and they were obviously spiritual as they concerned themselves with the non-physical realities of humans and other creatures. Spirituality isn't defining one's own beliefs, and it doesn't belong to any particular religion. Spirituality is part of the human experience. We all have it, although we may not acknowledge it or act upon it consciously.

Answer 5

Spirituality is morality, which is the fundamental aspect of all religions. Therefore, I believe spirituality existed way before the first religion was ever created.

Answer 6

you be attentive to that love and morality has been with mankind because of the fact the commencing up of time, and that's a factor of religion. Worship of a god who provided the sunlight and Nature could have come first. We see those symbols in cave artwork.

Answer 7

Religion, liberalism, internationalism are of the devil.

They are all systems Satan uses whereby mankind by his/her efforts and merits attempt to gain a form of salvation or approbation of God or Utopia.

Judeo-Christianity is not a religion it is a relationship.

Answer 8

In the beginning was God.....read St John chapter one.
Before God there was God which means there was nothing else. He created all things, He is a Spirit. He made the first man and woman. Formed Adam out of the dust and breathed life into him (spirit) then He created Eve from one of Adams ribs and breathed or spoke life into her as well. God spoke everything into existence, He told them to be fruitful and multiply which fruitful being like how to live and multiply, it being teach this way of life to every one who is born. Well when they sinned that put them out of fellowship with Him the Father and were put out of the garden of Eden and therefore could not teach the correct way to live because they lost it because of sinning, so the only thing that was left in being fruitful was people kept on being born except now they were out of fellowship with Father God. From that time on there was a vacuum within them because they had lost the perfect spiritual life that they were created with. So then is when religion came into being as man began searching to fill that vacuum. God tried to work with man to bring him back to fellowship with Himself and to shorten this here as I cannot tell the whole bible here. He then had to create a perfect sinless man to bring His creation of humans back into the holiness which they were created as in the beginning. Thus God found this young virgin girl who happened to be Jewish. He had the Holy Ghost create in her the sperm that birthed Jesus who was born to die to shed His blood for the remission of the sins of the people in the world, and when you believe that Jesus came and died for you God rose Him from the dead, receive Him as your Lord and Saviour you are brought back into the Spiritual fellowship again and that vacuum is then filled. Because without the shedding of Blood there is no Remission of Sins.,
We are Spirit, God gave us a soul, and put us in a body.

I pray that you will see here now that Spiritual was first and Religion is man made. Jesus says He is the way the truth and the Life, no man can come to the Father except through Him, and I just told you how.
This took a long time to tell you here but it is not a light thing and is very important., The enemy of our souls satan does not want us to understand this as Jesus has done away with Him, and he knows it so he has started all kinds of things, counterfeit, lies, and deception to destroy people so they do not accept Jesus as the Lord and Saviour.
So in your question .....the answer is Spirituality came first and I attempted to tell you how and I pray that you can understand it because it is the Truth and you will know the Truth and the Truth will make you free, and understanding comes with the Truth of God's Word. Amen

The Bible is a Spiritual Book and unless you are born again back into fellowship with God you can not understand it. Christianity is a life style not a religion. It is the Kingdom of God and is not the Kingdom of the world and its system.

Answer 9

The oldest religion is animism. That was the belief that there was a spirit in everything.

Answer 10

sounds like a problem of semantics ,some see the spiritual side of life some see the theistic side or both some don't see either . it's your sense of perception and your mind that does it or not.