Which is more important to you...

[ChristineES]

Faith or Religion.

I have always separated my faith in God separate from Religion. I was raised by an atheist who later became an agnostic (she eventually accepted Christ)for my youngest childhood and knew nothing of God or Church. I did not become a Christian from going to Church, but became one after reading the New Testament myself. When I started going to Church, I noticed that they had beliefs that I never even thought of and never seemed to come across in the Bible.

I can't help but notice that Church doctrine sometimes has teachings that the Bible doesn't seem to mention.

My faith has always seem separate than "religion" which is doctrine, dogma, and someone else's interpretation of the Bible. I am not saying they are wrong or anything, but I don't always agree with their reasonings.

I wonder how other people feel about this. Do you think there is a difference between faith in God and Religion, or do you believe that Faith and Religion go hand-in-hand? Any other comments about this subject is welcome.
(edit- I tried to fix the spelling of important in the thread title, but could not )

 

[Hema]

You don't know what we do to those who misspell words in their thread titles! :fork: Muaahaahaaaa! Just joking!

Don't worry we all make typos from tmie to tmie.

For me - faith! Even if an atheist lives with love, it is a blessing.

It's what God wants from us - love. Love is the most powerful force on earth. God is love. I agree that people can be spiritual but not religious. Spiritual people live in the awareness of the spirit - the higher self! Of course religious people can do this as well, but it doesn't mean that spiritual people are any lesser in God's eyes. For eg. there are I people I know who pray a lot and go to holy places a lot but they don't know how to live with people!

My dad said the other day that we can all close all the religious texts now and live with love - that is what God wants.

 

[Djamila]

Faith is more important to me in that I believe substance is more important than ritual.

That doesn't mean I believe I can just believe in God and that's the end of it - but it does mean I'm always... conscious. I don't just so something because Muslims in Indonesia do it, or Muslims in Saudi Arabia do it. If I make a religious decision, I make it myself - I seek knowledge from other sources, of course, but I don't just... "do something" because it's commonly accepted doctrine.

 

[Super Universe]

So many people have no idea what you are talking about. They can't separate faith in God from religion. To them they are the same thing. They believe their religion comes directly from God and that only their specific rituals are true.

Religion comes from people. It evolved from the belief's and rituals of the tribal holy man and ancient priests.

God would only recognize Himself in a few sentences or maybe a paragraph in any the bible.

 

[Quagmire]

Faith is the song.

Religion (at best) is just the sheet music.

 

[Aeiralo]

Quagmire said it best.

But I believe (even though I'm atheist) that faith is more important.

 

[Agondonter]

Religion belongs to the world; faith to the individual. As from a large fire millions of sparks fly free, even so does faith fly free from its source. Is the spark more or less important than the fire?

 

[Runlikethewind]

For me faith and religion go hand in hand. I think its important in our own faith to learn from the examples of others and their faith experience. Faith as the belief in God leads to a desire to better know and understand God. So maybe one picks up the Bible or the Koran or any number of religious texts. But in order to understand those one needs to know things about them like who wrote it, who was it addressed to, when, what kind of format is it written in, etc. There are questions of language, history, and more; many things that people have been studying for generations. Its just that it seems like the journey of faith is made easier when it is not traveled alone. The more one wishes to grow in faith the more one needs the help of others, to ask their opinons, or to gain a different perspective on questions, or just plain moral support in times of trouble or doubt.

Personaly my faith extends to include the Church. I believe in God and I believe that he did not leave us alone on this earth to find ALL the answers on our own, we don't have time for that, we would be spending all our time trying to answer questions that many have already asked and many have already been answered. My faith in God is faith that He has left us a lamp to light the way to Him and that lamp is religion. I like the way that Agondonter put it, that our individual sparks of faith come together in religion to form a massive fire.

Hope that helps some...

 

[Mister Emu]

A seed is planted in the ground. Warm sun brings forth it's growth.

For me, I am the seed, faith is the ground, and religion is the sun. Without faith(ground) there is nothing for me to grow in, without the sun the plant doesn't grow, or grows awry. One without the other, for me, is futile.

Edit:
To put it in another's metaphor, that of song:
For me, faith is the voice, religion is the notation that organizes it into song.

 

[BruceDLimber]

Hi!

In the Baha'i view, humans tend to mess with and corrupt religious teachings over time, so that they eventually become distorted or greately altered by human additions and changes to the original teachings.

IOV this is one of the reasons why God periodically renews religion by sending a new Divine Messenger in order to get religion "back on the rails," so to speak!

And we see such Divine Revelation as a never-ending process!

Best,

Bruce

 

[michel]

Do you think there is a difference between faith in God and Religion, or do you believe that Faith and Religion go hand-in-hand? Any other comments about this subject is welcome.
(edit- I tried to fix the spelling of important in the thread title, but could not )

For me, personally, I believe that there is a wide gap between faith in God and Religion - but that may be because my beliefs are not those of a typical Christian, and embrace beliefs from other religions.