Comments on: Religion Vs. Spirituality

By: Didi

Didi — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 16:44:30 +0000

Once again, our world gets so caught up in words and labels. I don’t believe that it is necessary to be right about a word at the expense of our souls. There are people who make the word “religion” negative. As one person commented, the word in and of itself is neither negative or positive. I think we should focus of God and our relationships with him and we should those things which promote intimacy … if that means following certain standards, rules (or being religious), then so be it. I am not afraid of the names that people may call me for following Jesus Christ. I am more afraid of not having my name called on that Great Day when He returns.

By: Nealie

Nealie — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 02:41:38 +0000

My thoughts on the subject are similar to what others have already said. To me, religion is short for organized religion. Organized religion is what happens to a specific spiritual path/story when it becomes a political & economic structure instead of (or in addition to) a means to peace and enlightenment. Some of the reasons that the term religion has negative connotations (for me): organized religion seems to establish protocols that are divorced from meaning, and original striving towards equality (gender, racial, &/or economic) disappear or become transmuted. Islam, for instance, started out with a great deal of desire on Mohammed’s part to give women greater equality. However, it’s current incarnation often appears to be quite the opposite of this.
As for a mutually agreeable or totally neutral description, I prefer Conscientious Truth Seeker.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:48:18 +0000

Yeah I think in a sense, a neutral word would also be a neutered word. Part of what makes words great is that they HAVE connotations and we can play with them…

I also love the definition of religion as a structured methodology

By: J. Puma

J. Puma — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:45:51 +0000

i don’t think either is ‘good’ or ‘bad;’ to me they’re two different things. i use ’spiritual’ to refer to the sort of over-arching desire for communion with “spirit” in whatever form it takes, and “religion” as a methodology with which to do so. so someone can be spiritual without being religious, but rarely religious without being spiritual.

i guess religion could be called the physical experience of the metaphysical within a context, but i prefer spiritual to metaphysical because metaphysical has WAY too many connotations (damn you, newage spewers!).

yeah if some people donâ€™t like the word religion, and some donâ€™t like the word spirituality, what words can we use to describe it thatâ€™s mutually agreeable or totally neutral?

heh, there are none. can’t be any neutral word, unless you make one up. even then we could call it “galaganarp” and somebody wouldn’t like the way “galaganarp” looked/sounded/rolled off the tongue.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:19:12 +0000

yeah if some people don’t like the word religion, and some don’t like the word spirituality, what words can we use to describe it that’s mutually agreeable or totally neutral?

my whole thing with “story-systems” was an attempt at moving toward that, but there must be something that isn’t a neologism. in a nutshell, the story-systems thing goes like: we each have constellations of stories which guide and inform our lives. it may be politics, religion, sports, movies, music, etc. from there we also have various rituals that we use to act out or participate in these stories.

By: carlos

carlos — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 15:53:53 +0000

yeah i much prefer spiritual too, it just means “of spirit”. because i believe i am of spirit, i guess i would say i’m spiritual. sounds etheric and individualistic, but also kinda condescending and lame, so i guess i would never actually say it after all.

interesting that the word religion has something to do with bondage. what is it with these archons?

is there a 3rd option?

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 14:33:38 +0000

I’m the other way around - religion, to me, implies dogma & confinding rules, a set mindset that is not to be budged - this is because of my unwillingness against most of christianity, however, so it’s a prejudice I try to get rid of.

Spirituality, while somewhat fluffy and non-committal, strikes me as personal devotion & beliefs, a pure yearning of one’s personal soul towards finding answers to life’s questions.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 04:50:58 +0000

What people mean when they say theyâ€™re not a religious person but a spiritual one, Iâ€™m not sure.

Yeah people say that all the time, don’t they? An even weirder one is when people say they are religious, but that they aren’t really spiritual… What the hell does that mean?

It’s funny, for me, religion doesn’t really have that “strict” connotation that it seems to for most people. I do like what you’re saying about rules and structure though. I guess, in my old age, I’m seeing those as more and more positive, oddly enough.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 04:21:45 +0000

religion seems a strict, rules and structure type thing that if you don’t fit a certain mold, you won’t get X whether it’s heaven or bliss or whatever religions give.

spirituality is kind of finding the divine on a personal level, instead of having a priest feed it to you, which usually leaves you starving. I’ve been to a couple different churches and found nothing of interest in either of them, though I do like the architecture of the Catholic church, they sing songs and talk about whatever and I didn’t feel anything.

Last night i was listening to a trance song, and it helped me meditate and stimulate my pineal and I was feeling quite blissful for a long while. If religion doesn’t put out, then I’m not in for it.

Gnosticism in general is a religion, there are different sects and ideologies, but Gnosis is a more spiritual personal experience of the divine unhindered by rules of a religion unless you put them there.

What people mean when they say they’re not a religious person but a spiritual one, I’m not sure.