Please Lock

[lonestar]

Do you define these as two seperate entities, or are they one and the same to you.  As I am going through a spiritual rebuilding process, I am digging into some long held ideas about God and Religion and spirituality.  Having reached a point of total depletion, I took pains to  put hard work and my soul into healing myself.  In the process, I am constantly reviewing and questioning my long held ideas about God(I'm an athiest, for now).  I have had some awakening moments, but I think they're more due to opening up avenues in me to love myself and to love others, and they do feel like a spiritual experience, one where I almost broke down on a public train.  I am not in a rush to find answers, and really want to develop a strong basis for my spiritual life, whether it involves some incarnation of a supreme diety or not.

Now I am not looking for direct answers or strict guidance, but I just am curious as to your guys opinion on the differences between spirituality and religion, and your definitions of what spirituality is.  As of the moment, I see it as the positive feedback of love given and recieved, but like I said, I am in my early stages of this process, and welcome any of your thoughts.


Also, first P/R thread for me.  

[AndyDT]

As I see it now:

Spirit - God/essence/Source/universal intelligence/Tao etc
Religion - system of beliefs for accessing and revering God
Religious - connection to God or, more commonly, belonging to a religion

[reo73]

We had a thread on this topic in here just a few days ago, don't know if you saw it or not.

Anyway...Yes, I believe you can be spiritual without being religious.  In my view spiritual people subscribe to a higher power or the supernatural that affects their world view but do not live by any set of necessary dogma.  Religion is taking these beliefs another step into the formation of dogma, practice of rituals (such as prayer or worship), attending gatherings (church), and the formation of ideologies.

So in a practical sense (let's take Christianity) you may have person A who believes in a creator, likes the teachings of Jesus, feels a certain joyful connection emotionally to others through love, etc. etc. but does not get concerned about theology, does not attend church, does not pray to anyone specific.  This person I view as spiritual.  Person B on the other hand believes in a specific creator (God) and his son Jesus, believes the Bible to hold truth and authority, attends a church and is involved in ministry, prays to God/Jesus, formulates a world view based around his/her beliefs.  This person I view as religious.

[lonestar]

We had a thread on this topic in here just a few days ago, don't know if you saw it or not.