Mukesh Sharma
Foundation of Hinduism
What is the difference between Religion and Spirituality?
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Religion and Spirituality
- Thread starter Mukesh Sharma
- Start date
As far as I can tell: religion gets tax breaks and spirituality (outside of religion) doesn't. AFAICT, that's the only difference.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Spirituality is: dad. I love you
Religion is: I know it's your birthday, so I bought you a gift. (And he hugs his dad)
Spirituality is more: I have an inner need to help people less fortunate then me.
Religion is more: I will join an organization and help with donations so people can get food and drinks they can't afford.
Spirituality is more: I feel good about myself
Religion is more: because I eat healthy foods and exercise everyday
Spirituality gives you the abstract or reason behind something. An intense feeling to show gratitude. Religion outs that feeling or reason to action to where by action it changes your life and others.
Without spirituality, hugs have no meaning. Without religion, where is the action of your love.
To me, a person's spirituality is the manner and extent to which they deal with their psychological self -- what they think of as "I" or "me".
Religion is nearly impossible to define in a way that would include all the world's religions, but exclude all things that are not religions.
Religion is nearly impossible to define in a way that would include all the world's religions, but exclude all things that are not religions.
There is no definitive answer to this question. To some, like myself, there is none.
Divorcing the meaning between these two terms is a fairly modern phenomena. Essentially, the "spiritual but not religious" thing started because of dissatisfaction with certain institutionalized religions (primarily Christian traditions) in America. "Spiritual but not religious" became a way of expressing detachment with those institutions while still maintaining some connection with the traditions. In other words, it was a countercultural phenomenon rejecting certain institutional trends.
What does this mean for divorcing the meaning between the two terms? Well, since the divorce was spawned by a countercultural rejection of institutional trends, it means "spirituality" got associated with private practice and "religion" got associated with public practice, at a minimum. But it also meant "religion" became a snarl word and all the undesirable aspects packed into it where the word "spiritual" maintained its respectable status.
I reject the divorced meaning in no small part because it makes no sense when applied to religions as a whole. I'll grant it makes sense in the context within which it first arose - as a countercultural rejection of certain trends within Christian traditions - but outside of that? Yeah, nope.
Religion is organized nonsense.
Spirituality is personal nonsense.
No offense to religious or spiritual folks. It's just how I view it.
Mukesh Sharma
Foundation of Hinduism
Thank you sharing your views regarding religion & spirituality
Mukesh Sharma
Foundation of Hinduism
Religion is a direction to God.Spirituality is also a path to God.The boundary between religion and spirituality is fluid.
My working definitions from my perspective...
Religion is a structured belief system that adheres to prescribed tenets or dogma agreed upon to be valid by a group for the sake of worship or reverence of a higher power.
Spirituality is the individual pursuit of understanding of the nature of the self beyond one's perception of mundane or temporal reality.
Religion is a structured belief system that adheres to prescribed tenets or dogma agreed upon to be valid by a group for the sake of worship or reverence of a higher power.
Spirituality is the individual pursuit of understanding of the nature of the self beyond one's perception of mundane or temporal reality.
Mukesh Sharma
Foundation of Hinduism
Thank you for sharing more detail information about religion & spirituality.
Anna Therese
Member
I believe spirituality in the commonly held sense of the word is used by people who say they do not practice any religion but do believe in a "higher power."
syo
Well-Known Member
Spirituality is a part of religion. in Orthodoxy, spiritual is that of the holy spirit.
Perhaps religions are more institutionalized. But in my view, revealed religions and revealed spiritual paths are not trustworthy sources of knowledge and truth. So in this regard, they are both useless. Better to stick with philosophical reflection than revealed knowledge.
Mukesh Sharma
Foundation of Hinduism
Here I got lots of information.
How does Dharma affect Hinduism?
How does Dharma affect Hinduism?
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
All you are really saying is that you consider yourself a better spiritual source than one of the great sages that have stood the test of time. Personally I would never put myself on par with such wisdom, despite its errors, because I simply know that I would do worse.
Which great sage should I believe? They all wildly contradict. And the scientific method generates provable truth, so this is what I use as the basis for my views. The great sages can't prove anything they say which is why I claim that the structure and functioning of the spiritual realm is inherently unknowable. That's really about all I claim: (1) that there is a spiritual realm containing everything non-physical (such as the subjective experience of consciousness and its contents), and (2) that it is unknowable as I mentioned. The great sages say a lot more than this, and therefore, render themselves untrustworthy sources of truth and knowledge.
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Take your pick of the sages. Any of them are wiser than you or I. And science simply doesn't answer the questions of morality and meaning that religion does. We owe it to ourselves to do our homework in these matters.
Spirit of Light
Be who ever you want
A religion is a spiritual path put in to an organization.
In my view Religion as form is man made, but the spiritual path of Cultivation of mind and body is the teaching of a God,Buddha,Dao and so on
In my view Religion as form is man made, but the spiritual path of Cultivation of mind and body is the teaching of a God,Buddha,Dao and so on