Religion & Spirituality - The same but different?

Wednesday April 9, 2014

I was asked a tricky one yesterday and I thought it would be a good subject to blog about.  What is the difference between religion and spirituality? Is there a difference? Isn’t being religious the same as being spiritual? Ok that is more than one question but it definitely got me thinking. I wasn’t raised in a religious household, in fact it was more like hell than anything even remotely God respecting so I suppose my perception of religion is personal to me. For some people their religion is their support, it is what makes sense of their lives. Everyone has  faith in something or someone. I realised when trying to think up a vaguely intelligent response that spirituality is a search for something within whereas religion is an education that gets foisted upon us from without. We are brought up or taught religion and how to be religious. Spirituality is unique to the individual and we have to decide to go looking for it, ourselves. There is no book just You and the universe and it is up to you to decide what that means and represents to you. No one can decide for you.

We discover our own spirituality but we are told what each religion means and what it holds true. There is no arguing with religion because it is written. Spirituality is more like science, it is a constant journey of discovery and sometimes we have to get it wrong and accept that to eventually get it right and believe it, know it to be true by our own experience rather than rely on the words of others. We find our own truths when we become more spiritual in our outlook, they aren’t forced upon us by some book that may or may not have been doctored to suit the power brokers and the pollies throughout the ages.

Something that also came to mind is that there can often be quite negative connotations attached to religion; wars start over them, people have and continue to be slaughtered purely for their faith but no one has ever sought out or segregated those who exist within their own spirituality. Mediums don’t start territorial wars or scar others because they won’t be told to believe in the same God as we do.

Another interesting thought that came to my mind is that organised religion, in my opinion, all but erases God, Allah, Buddha or whomever is the focal point of your particular worship from the scene anyway.  We appoint “mere mortals” and they are the ones who decide what God meant when he said it! We go to confession and speak to a cleric, prayers and hymns in organised religion are written out for us, supposedly handed down by by whom and who decides what is written and how it is used. In short there is much more human intervention and very little free will involved in organised religion. Spirituality is all about the free will of the individual.  Religion is very much do what you are told to do, spirituality is about listening to your own spirit, your intuition, your inner voice and learning to disregard the clatter of the human world when you do.

I am definitely not anti-religion, I'm not really anti-anything. I am respectful of others beliefs and their own reality where their faith is concerned. This is just my view, something we are all entitled to have. To me religion is about doing, being seen to be doing and following the rules. Spirituality is quite simply about being.