spirituality and religion - what are the differences? (page 2)

Sulla

Looks like Fernando agreeswith what I said. The whole, "spirituality: good, religion: bad," thing is a tired trope of small minds, of course. But there it is.

cofty

I get the impression that "spirituality" is religion devoid of all content.

Poppers has provided a classic illustration...

"Spirituality comes from within and is a natural flowering forth of one's inner essence into the world around you."

In what way does this statement, which Loz endorsed, have any actual meaning in the real world?

Spirit comes from the latin word for breath. I think of it as 'being' - that which you cannot see, touch, or hear, but which animates existence. Someone who is spiritual is someone who cares about more than just material existence. Spirituality can pertain not only to a religious tradition, but to art, literature, or philosophy. Atheists such as Nietzsche can be described as spiritual.

I would describe religion as a cultural construct that systemizes spiritual beliefs. One of the words religion derives from, ligare, means to bind, or connect. So a religion binds the mythology, symbols, rituals, and ethics that make up a belief system, and it also binds the people who ascribe to that system. A religion also usually has a clergy or other mode of authority that serve to transmit a tradition to lay followers. Like all social institutions, religions are subject to corruption and other human foibles - which is why many people now describe themselves as 'spiritual' rather than 'religious.'

I had the antipathy that many feel towards religion. But then I took a class in college that looked at religion from an anthropological perspective. It gave me a strange new respect for religion. The rituals, mythology, and other aspects of religion that many of us find silly actually go back to our paleolithic ancestors. And though we may be enamoured with this new narrative we call 'progress', these prehistoric people had a reverence and respect for their world that we can learn a lot from. The world was a spirit - a 'thou' instead of an 'it'. Aspects in many religions connect us back to this sacred perspective.

Sulla

Cofty, content-less statements are de rigueur these days. What, you're opposed to your natural essense flowering all over the place, or something?

cofty

I'm a bit precious about my natural essense to be honest.

It drives me nuts when people pretend to say things without actually saying anything.

If you can't explain what you mean to my gran you don't understand what you are talking about. (She would be 105 if she wasn't dead and never read a book in her life)

tec

Mindseye, i liked reading your explanations.

The problem, I find, is that both those words 'religion' and 'spirituality' have taken on various meanings to various people.

Spiritual, to me, is more about faith and connection to the yet unseen... but real. (the spirit of Christ, and our Creator) No rules, no doctrines, no teachers other than Christ.

Religion, to me, is more about belief and connection to the seen. Such as rules, doctrines, holy books, rituals, artifacts, men as mediators, etc.

There are more explanations and comparisons, and some very good ones in all of the above.

peace,

tammy

soft+gentle

Jeffro

you've hit the nail on the head regarding what I am asking in a strange sort of way

so really just as would be the case that if we got rid of Mcdonald's we would still have hamburgers so if we got rid of all religion we would still have spirituality remaining. On the other forum I concluded that spirituality has to do with lightness but I am hesitant to say categorically that religion is the opposite. but if our perspective is from that of being xjws then I guess we could say that religion is heavy downheartedness.