QUESTION: Are you RELIGIOUS or SPIRITUAL? What's the difference between the two?
by Black Man 19 Replies latest jw friends
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Black Man
So what say you, JWN?
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Iamallcool
(bookmarked) I will check this thread later, I better go to work sometime soon.
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Jim_TX
I consider myself spiritual.
I feel the difference is... hmmm... well, it might be like the native American Indians (not sure of the current politically-correct term). I feel that they were very spiritual. Not religious.
Regards,
Jim TX
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agent zero
me too spiritual not religious. (i have a feeling that's the most common response you'll be getting here)
the two terms are quite different but are traditionally a bit of a package deal, ESPECIALLY to JWs to whom they are one and the same distorted unreality. however it still depends on a personal interpretation of each.
to me, religious, besides the belonging to an organized religion part, connotes belief, doctrine, tradition, specifics.
spiritual is a much looser, more organic identification, connoting open-mindedness, appreciation, interest, relativity.
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tec
I think there are two ways that those words are described:
1 - spiritual encompasses all sorts of things - like psychics, mediums, ghosts, etc, anything to do with the 'beyond'
- religious encompasses belief in God (in any of the five major world religions)
2 - spiritual encompasses FAITH in God - with or without being part of a group
- religion is the institution that attempts to organize and contain faith... making sure it follow the rules.
For me, I don't say I'm spiritual so much anymore, because of the two different definitions. I simply say that I am not religious, but that I do have FAITH in Christ and God.
Peace,
Tammy
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blondie
I found this a good article to examine that. I don't consider myself part of organized religion....but is that simple defining religious as to spiritual?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norris-j-chumley-phd/exactly-what-is-religious_b_509871.html
Religious Versus Spiritual?
Posted: 3/23/10 12:13 PM ET Follow New Age Spirituality , Meditation , Spirituality , Yoga , New Age , Pew Forum On Religion And Public Life , Religious Beliefs , Beliefs , Gandhi , God , Lao-Tsu , Lao-Tzu , Millennial Generation , Millennials , Millennials And Religion , Millennials And Spirituality , Organized Religion , Religion , Religion News
It's a trend today to disdain religion as repressive and affirm spirituality as transformational or liberating, but really, one can be a member of a religious institution and be spiritual, or be religious or spiritual without belonging to a church -- or both. There's a new trend of "do your own spiritual thing," forming one's own religion based on a kind of à la carte sampling of traditions and religions, from Buddhist sangha meditation to Christian prayer chanting to Hindu or Hebrew dietary codes. It's très hip to be a Jew-Bu (Jewish/Buddhist) or a yogi for Christ. One practicing Hindu I know often reminds me that "Jesus Christ and Buddha are both incarnations of Vishnu."
What's gotten me wondering about those labels and put me in a theological (God-talk) mood again today is a recent survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, titled Religion Among the Millennials. They report that "Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans." Only about 25 percent of the millennials, as Pew calls those who have just come of age, belong to religious groups. Are 20-somethings "spiritual" but not "religious," given that alternative, individual spiritual books and practices like yoga and meditation are hugely popular? Pew claims that 48 percent of millennials pray daily, 26 percent meditate weekly, and 64 percent say they are absolutely certain of God's existence; they simply practice outside of organized religion.
Since I read the Pew report, I've been conducting my own informal "street" survey of millennials. Sonya, 20, an NYU undergrad, raised Jewish, claims she's spiritual but doesn't go to synagogue. Lucy, 29, a grad student, born Catholic, says she's religious but doesn't go to church, except maybe at Easter. Jeremy, 28, a broker, isn't religious or spiritual but finds peace in nature. Rory, 29, a novelist, clams he's agnostic but attends Quaker meeting. Eve, 21, an unemployed designer, goes to several churches and attends Buddhist meditation every Thursday night, but she isn't religious, she says.
It's high time to revisit the question: what exactly does it mean to be spiritual or religious? Many baby-boomers like me consider "religion" to be external, organized, and connected to cultures and institutions like churches, synagogues, and temples, or, in the Clifford Geertz definition, cultural systems. "Spirituality" to me isn't necessarily tied to systems or houses of worship; it's internal, ethereal, and intangible. However, when I look up definitions online and in dictionaries, religion and spirituality are treated as basically synonymous. Religion can be a belief, practice, or membership in or out of an institution. Spirituality can be a feeling or belief, or, as a secondary definition, even church income or property!
Digging a little deeper, there really is a difference, and it is about application and sharing of the beliefs one holds. To be religious means to hold a set of beliefs about how the world and universe came to be, and to share those beliefs with others. The commonality may be a doctrine, a set of rituals, a moral or ethical code, tribal or sect identification, or a shared prophet, leader, guru, or savior. The origin of the word is Middle English, meaning faithfulness or piety or, as in the Old French, a sacred practice that is connected, tied together, or bound in community.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is not primarily communal but individual in belief and practice. If one is spiritual, one typically has beliefs in something not tied to the material world: something ethereal and intangible but perceived or believed to exist. It can be earth-related, such as a belief in nature. It can encompass belief in a "higher power," some force or unified creator or God that is bigger and more powerful than oneself, and untethered to traditional churches or doctrine. I discovered that the word "spirit" is ancient and interconnected: the Hebrew Bible uses the term nephesh to describe breathing (see Genesis 2:7) or ruach, wind or air. From the Greek, the New Testament borrows pneuma, the life force within. Both Aristotle and Plato taught that the psyche, or soul, resides in the human body and is divine. They disagreed as to whether we're born with it or if it is from something eternal. St. Paul, likely having studied Greek philosophy, talks in the New Testament about the spirit residing in the body.
Another poll of Americans by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life late last year found that many people attend multiple religious services and hold spiritual, religious, and "New Age" beliefs all at the same time. It is fascinating to me that that same study found that 49 percent of respondents have had "a religious or mystical experience, defined as a 'moment of sudden religious insight or awakening.'" A full 30 percent of those responses come from people who say they are "unaffiliated" with any particular religion or organized ideology.
Two great spiritual leaders answered the question of religion or spirituality quite beautifully. Lao-tzu, the sixth-century-B.C.E. Chinese philosopher, wrote, "As rivers have their source in some far-off fountain, so the human spirit has its source. To find his fountain of spirit is to learn the secret of heaven and earth."
Gandhi puts spirituality in a slightly more religious framework, but without institutionalizing it: "I do dimly perceive that whilst everything around me is ever-changing, ever-dying, there is underlying all that change a Living Power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates. That informing Power or Spirit is God ..." (from Ghandi's Ideas by C.F. Andrews).
So here we are on the Great Internet -- that infinite network of material wires, WiFi, optical cables, and nodes -- talking about spirit and religion. Might we all be tied together right now in a new kind of community spirituality and religion -- the net?
Follow Norris J. Chumley, Ph.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Jesusmysteries
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ProdigalSon
"Spiritual" is the realization that you are a timeless and immortal spirit temporarily inhabiting a biological body. It comes with no dogma attached, only self-awareness or the recognition of the capacity to be self-aware. There is no personal God, God is within yourself.
"Religious" is heavily laden with doctrine and dogma, and you better find the right one or your spirit will die with the biological body never to be seen or heard from again. The goal is to find and please an external personal God.
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AGuest
I have to agree with what dear PSon stated, dear BM (peace to you, both!), to some degree.
I am spiritual, in that I am an immortal spirit temporarily inhabiting a mortal vessel (the biological body, yes). I am not timeless, per se, because my spirit had a beginning (when it came forth from the Source)... and can have an end (desctruction by fire). That end, however, has to be brought upon it by one who can do so - I cannot (although I can choose to have the one that can do so FOR me). I can, however, bring an end to the biological vessel that I occupy - since, being mortal, MUST end, at some point. That it does prematurely is a choice I can make.
As dear PSon stated, there is no dogma attached to my spirit: there is only light and life... unless I CHOOSE darkness... and death. Which I can do.
As a spirit, I have a personal God... my "Father"... the One who is the origin of my spirit, in that I came out from Him... by coming forth from the "Woman" He resides within (the spirit realm). It is by means of a "fertilization" by HIS spirit... His breath/blood/seed (semen)... the spirit I am by means of my "mother" (the Woman, Jerusalem Above)... that I will eventually become "like" Him: knowing life... and death... and yet, living. Something only spirit beings who do NOT reside in biological vessels can do. In that way I will be in His image... eternally.
As dear PSon also stated, He is within me; however, I am also in Him... by means of His Son. That One was given the means (holy spirit) and authority to so "fertilize" me... by "anointing" me with that [holy] spirit... so that I became "conceived" as a son... now awaiting a rebirth (to be born AGAIN, this time, in the spirit). In the meantime, I am another bit of the "light"... which came forth from the original Source... "shining in the darkness."
I agree with dear PSon that religion is heavily laden with dogma and doctrine... and that some (the WTBTS) teaches death of the spirit, which is a lie. However, such is that which those who are enslaved... firstly, to FEAR... and secondly, to the whims of their fellowman... need and require. For those for whom perfect love has cast all fear OUTSIDE, however... love really is the only law: for God (and thus, His Son), one's self (because one must love others AS one loves oneself), one's flesh (spouse/offspring), brother, neighbor, stranger... and one's enemies.
Again, peace to you!
A slave of Christ,
SA
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ProdigalSon
Hi Shel.... you said, I am not timeless, per se, because my spirit had a beginning (when it came forth from the Source)
If that spirit (the "I AM") that came forth from the source was originally part of the source, and if the source is timeless, then your spirit would be too. In higher dimensions above 3d, once we escape the "matrix", there is no linear time, only the "now".
That spirit inside you, is not the same as "egos", which are false identities that we pick up along the way of life, most of it while we are very young and impressionable. Those are the parts of us that cause all the suffering. Those are what have to be burned in the symbolic furnace (good riddance, we can live without them!), since only a pure spirit can return to the source. The Gnostic viewpoint, which of course I espouse, is that we don't have to die to accomplish this, we can do it while we're alive. That's what it means to be "born again".
This is the "Higher Self" that we're connected to. We're not orphans by any stretch. Separateness is an illusion!