What is the purpose of religion/spirituality (for you)?

[an anarchist]

Why are you religious or spiritual?

Are you religious because your religion is factual? Are you spiritual because it brings you inner peace? Are you religious because that is the moral choice?

Perhaps you simply cannot escape it, even if you wanted to.

The acquisition of mana for the realizations of my ambitions, as well as self improvement, is my personal reasonings for being religious. Though I try to escape it time to time, I find myself unable to.

Below describes what religion does to me

"Give up learning, and put an end to your troubles...
Other people are contented...
But I alone am drifting not knowing where I am.
Like a new-born babe before it learns to smile,
I am alone, without a place to go.

Other have more than they need, but I alone have nothing.
I am a fool. Oh, yes! I am confused.
Other men are clear and bright,
But I alone am dim and weak.
Other men are sharp and clever,
But I alone am dull and stupid.
Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea.
Without direction, like the restless wind.

Everyone else is busy,
But I alone am aimless and depressed.
I am different.
I am nourished by the great mother."

Tao Te Ching, verse 20

 

[JustGeorge]

I just am.

Is there a purpose? I don't know. Maybe I'll find out, maybe not.

Is it factual? What is? (Rhetorical question.)

Inner peace, yes. Inner turmoil, yes.

Moral choice? No. I'm not sure I believe in morals...

Can I escape it? No more than I can escape myself...

 

[King Phenomenon]

The recognition of the truth of reality.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Why are you religious or spiritual?

It's what I am.

I'm not a human being living a spiritual life; I'm a spiritual being living a human life.

 

[PureX]

The purpose of religion is to help people live according to their chosen theological presumptions. Religions do this by providing us with emotional, psychological, and practical habitual tools that we can use to help us control our thoughts and behaviors to that end.

Spirituality is our sense that there is more going on, and more to life than what we can ascertain physically or logically. And we want/need to try and align ourselves with this mystery as best we are able, for the sake of wisdom, protection, and a positive purpose in life.

 

[LuisDantas]

I don't necessarily conform to or have respect for many or most understandings of what "religion", "religiosity" or "spirituality" would be.

But I have a few definitions of religion of my own that aim to be both functional, useful and morally defensable. I have never quite settled on any given one of them.

One of the valid reasons for religiosity is to offer some form of answer to the craving for connections between our personal anxieties and needs and more abstract values and ideas. Another is the perception that we need some form of ethical framework and values. There is also the clear yet often undervalued need for human connection and development of shared vocabulary and mutual support networks.

The OP made me realize that another is the need for pointing out that we do not conform to exterior presumptions about our values and beliefs.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Religion is just something to do until you die.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Religion is just something to do until you die.

Like breathing?

 

[Quintessence]

Like breathing?

Yes. Especially for those of us where religion simply is who we are - one's way of life and one's essential nature.

I've often argued that all humans are religious in this way. They can't help but to be meaning-makers and storytellers and question-askers. They can't help but to build ways of life and being that revolve around the ways they make meaning and tell stories and answer existential questions. It's inherent to what humans are as a species. Perhaps one of the few or only things that is actually unique to humans, but we don't have enough insights into the thoughts and minds of other species to know that for sure. Other animals certainly express, at times, behaviors that could be indicative of religiosity. It's hard to say.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Like breathing?

Except that religion is optional.

 

[Quintessence]

Except that religion is optional.

Keeping in mind the thoughts I expressed above, how do you differ from this perspective such that you believe religion - asking questions, assigning value, and making meaning - can be optional for the human species? Do you define religion based only on, say, organized institutional religion?

 

[Kathryn]

Why do I believe what I believe? Largely because it works for me. I don't expect everyone else to believe as I do.. My beliefs make me a better person in my interactions with others. That's important to me. I really don't care what others believe, as long as they treat me the same way I treat them. I mean, generally - just be a decent person.

 

[CharmingOwl]

To cast spells, get gods to help out in life, and to make things appear that benefit me. Since I am the leader of my faith there is also the incentive of making a positive impact on the world.

 

[☆Dreamwind☆]

Because it feels right to me I guess. Never really thought about it. Some things a person just feels with their heart.

 

[sun rise]

I just am.

Bingo. I did not choose spirituality. Spirituality chose me. The "light" "caught" me.

Inner peace, yes. Inner turmoil, yes.

Hah. Yes, indeed. And yes again.

Moral choice? No. I'm not sure I believe in morals...

To me morals or should be a belief in truth, love, justice, understanding, honor and so forth.

Can I escape it? No more than I can escape myself...

Iron filings can't escape being drawn to a magnet. Flowers can't escape being drawn to the sun. And I can't escape my attraction to the divine nor do I want to.

 

[anna.]

Religion motivates me to a purpose beyond myself, it gives me a sense of the sacred, and most of all, the hope of an afterlife.

Doubt has been humming in the back of my mind for a long time now, but at this moment, I choose to believe.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Why are you religious or spiritual?

Are you religious because your religion is factual? Are you spiritual because it brings you inner peace? Are you religious because that is the moral choice?

Perhaps you simply cannot escape it, even if you wanted to.

The acquisition of mana for the realizations of my ambitions, as well as self improvement, is my personal reasonings for being religious. Though I try to escape it time to time, I find myself unable to.

Below describes what religion does to me

"Give up learning, and put an end to your troubles...
Other people are contented...
But I alone am drifting not knowing where I am.
Like a new-born babe before it learns to smile,
I am alone, without a place to go.

Other have more than they need, but I alone have nothing.
I am a fool. Oh, yes! I am confused.
Other men are clear and bright,
But I alone am dim and weak.
Other men are sharp and clever,
But I alone am dull and stupid.
Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea.
Without direction, like the restless wind.

Everyone else is busy,
But I alone am aimless and depressed.
I am different.
I am nourished by the great mother."

Tao Te Ching, verse 20

It is the way I am, as far back as I can remember. It is the way I experience the world.

I tried, for a time, to be an atheist/materialist, but found I was having to ignore or discount most of my life experiences, which didn't seem to be the right way of going about life.

I have found that being an agnostic animist who is considering founding the Unorthodox Church of Yoshua to be a much better fit for me.

 

[JustGeorge]

Bingo. I did not choose spirituality. Spirituality chose me. The "light" "caught" me.

Same. The Gods took my hands and wouldn't let go.

Hah. Yes, indeed. And yes again.

To me morals or should be a belief in truth, love, justice, understanding, honor and so forth.

I think all those things are desirable in most settings. However, there's a time when their opposites might be appropriate... not in a permanent way, but temporarily, to fill a purpose. A lie to spare someone. A feeling of hatred against an attacker that enables one fight to save one's life(forgiveness can come later). Admitting not understanding(because its only after that that one can learn).

I don't understand my tiny place in the grand cosmos, so I just try not to hurt anybody. Not because its morally right not to, but because hurting people feels bad.

Iron filings can't escape being drawn to a magnet. Flowers can't escape being drawn to the sun. And I can't escape my attraction to the divine nor do I want to.

I think that's wonderful!

There's been times of great pain I've wanted to, but after the feelings subside, I realize that it makes no sense to escape the 'divine pull'. I couldn't, anyways. I'm just not wired to abandon it... and it would totally not let me, anyways.

 

[Mock Turtle]

As per the OP question - seemingly to provoke and puzzle me as to why so many are determined to have one even if such sets them apart from so many and where so many others can live as well without such complications in life. But then there are so many who manage their beliefs not to cause conflicts so I suppose each to their own.

 

[Tamino]

Why are you religious or spiritual?

No idea. My brain apparently just works that way.

Are you religious because your religion is factual?

No

Are you spiritual because it brings you inner peace? Are you religious because that is the moral choice?

Yes to both. But I am unsure whether inner peace and a moral baseline are a cause or a consequence of my spiritual path.

Perhaps you simply cannot escape it, even if you wanted to.

Might be. There are things we can control and change, and things that are not in our power.
Don't they say that wisdom is the ability to sort out which is which?

The acquisition of mana for the realizations of my ambitions, as well as self improvement, is my personal reasonings for being religious. Though I try to escape it time to time, I find myself unable to.

Sounds like a valid concept to me.

Below describes what religion does to me

"Give up learning, and put an end to your troubles...
Other people are contented...
But I alone am drifting not knowing where I am.
Like a new-born babe before it learns to smile,
I am alone, without a place to go.

Other have more than they need, but I alone have nothing.
I am a fool. Oh, yes! I am confused.
Other men are clear and bright,
But I alone am dim and weak.
Other men are sharp and clever,
But I alone am dull and stupid.
Oh, I drift like the waves of the sea.
Without direction, like the restless wind.

Everyone else is busy,
But I alone am aimless and depressed.
I am different.
I am nourished by the great mother."

Tao Te Ching, verse 20

I lov that text , it really captures this feeling that I sometimes have (that everyone has sometimes?)... when it feels like everyone and everything has their place and their plans, and only you are entirely lost and clueless.

But that's not what my religion does to me. Quite the opposite: mine helps me to feel connected, rather than adrift.