whats the difference between being spiritual and religious?
596554
religion is man made. Spirituality is walking in the way that God would have us walk.\n\nReligion brings death. Spirituality brings life.
1033193
religion - because people who have religion want people who don't to have it; and people who don't have it want people with it to lose it\n\nsex - because people who don't have it want it and people who do have it don't want to lose it or want to make it better
9804
Islam is a religion not to be confused with culture.\n\nCulture is usually thought up by human themselves whereas religion is what God ask of you.\n\nJust my opinion  :oD
216467
Religion is membership in a group, spirituality is a relationship with God.
1025514
Religion IS just a way of life.  It is also man made but is helps one keep some sort of focus on life for the better.  There is only one main religion, the religion of the heart which teaches LOVE.
546113
Ask yourself this. Do you want religion in your life, or do you want spirituality? They are actually 2 different things. I think that relgion sprang from spirituality, but somewhere it got bogged down in power struggles, rules and dogma. There are very few people out there who actually believe in the spirit behind the religion, and just give their belief to the structure...i.e. the church/religion. \n\nI had the same problem a few years back. I felt guilty for not clinging to my christian roots, but had a hard time staying true to myself and hearing that I was going to hell by the same God that was supposed to be all loving. I took a long hard look and decided it was time to find something that would speak to the sanctity and spirituality of humankind...and ended up with Wicca. It's not the choice for everyone, and it's actually my own little form of Wicca. I have taken things from different spiritual paths and melded my own. And that is what works for me. \n\nLook to your heart to tell you what is right. Worship if you will, but do it out of spirit rather than fear and browbeating.  It is going to be a long journey, but you will figure out what you need in the end. It will take strength, but it looks as if you have started. Good luck to you!
1065003
Religion focuses on how we live our lives in this world.  That is, it attempts to define what constitutes a "moral life", and what we must do to earn God's favor.  Religion often produces rites or rituals as a means of conducting its formulaic approach to worship.\n\nSpirituality is a focus/concern on our life outside of the physical realm.  It is a recognition of our own spirit, and a desire to connect (in some manner) with God (or other entities) that reside in a realm that exists outside of time and space. Typically, it will involve a person's own emotional experience.
125472
Religion, meaning a cycle or continuously practiced, it’s a sense of belonging or getting involved to your present state, it could be spiritual or political, but you have to have a sense of belonging in whatever society, place, situation or state you are in to achieve harmony. \nIt’s like the saying, “ do what the Roman’s  do” or “go where the river flows”, if you’re in an Islamic county, practice and respect their ways, if you’re in any other places where majority religious faiths like Christians, Buddhist, Hindu or any other faiths, respect them and be  harmonious, if your in a society that bans “chewing gum” then respect it. There’s nothing wrong if you change certain practices and ways one time after another to achieve harmony, as long as you don’t change the greatest belief, which is you are “yourself” and no one can ever change that!
779200
spirituality is within yourself. It makes you feel good and at peace.  It does not mean one believes in God or even a "higher being", it is personal. For me it is being in nature. When I am out in the woods, sitting on a high rock and looking down at the water, watching life, I am at peace.
882049
well first you have to know the difference and the difference is\n\nThere are many definitions of religion, and most have struggled to avoid an overly sharp definition on the one hand, and meaningless generalities on the other. Some have tried to use formalistic, doctrinal definitions and others have tried to use experiential, emotive, intuitive, valuational and ethical factors.\n\nSociologists and anthropologists see religion as an abstract set of ideas, values, or experiences developed as part of a cultural matrix. Primitive religion was indistinguishable from the sociocultural acts where custom and ritual defined an emotional reality.\n\nOther religious scholars have put forward a definition of religion that avoids the reductionism of the various sociological and psychological disciplines that relegate religion to its component factors. Religion may be defined as the presence of a belief in the sacred or the holy. For example Rudolf Otto's "The Idea of the Holy," formulated in 1917, defines the essence of religious awareness as awe, a unique blend of fear and fascination before the divine. Friedrich Schleiermacher in the late 18th century defined religion as a "feeling of absolute dependence."\n\nThe Encyclopedia of Religion describes religion in the following way:\n\n    "In summary, it may be said that almost every known culture involves the religious in the above sense of a depth dimension in cultural experiences at all levels — a push, whether ill-defined or conscious, toward some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behaviour are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience — varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture."\n\n        (Winston King, Encyclopedia of Religion, p 7693)\n\n\nand the definition of a cult would be\n\n, a cult is a cohesive group of people (often a relatively small and recently founded religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. Its separate status may come about either due to its novel belief system, because of its idiosyncratic practices or because it opposes the interests of the mainstream culture. Other non-religious groups may also display cult-like characteristics.\n\nIn common usage, "cult" has a negative connotation, and is generally applied to a group by its opponents, for a variety of reasons. Understandably, most, if not all, groups that are called "cults" deny this label. Some anthropologists and sociologists studying cults have argued that no one yet has been able to define “cult” in a way that enables the term to identify only groups that have been claimed as problematic[citation needed].\n\nThe literal and traditional meanings of the word cult is derived from the Latin cultus, meaning "care" or "adoration", as "a system of religious belief or ritual; or: the body of adherents to same"32. In English, it remains neutral and a technical term within this context to refer to the "cult of Artemis at Ephesus" and the "cult figures" that accompanied it, or to "the importance of the Ave Maria in the cult of the Virgin." This usage is more fully explored in the entry Cult (religious practice).\n\nIn non-English European terms, the cognates of the English word "cult" are neutral, and refer mainly to divisions within a single faith, a case where English speakers might use the word "sect", as in "Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are sects (or denominations) within Christianity". In French or Spanish, culte or culto simply means "worship"
34818
For me personally...\n\nReligious - doing the rituals and practices prescribed by a religion, studying a religion, focusing on the tools of religion.\n\nSpiritual - going beyond the rituals, practices, studying, and tools of religion and applying the teachings, philosophies, and theologies to your everyday life. \n\nMost people are Spiritually Religious in that they practice their religion both from a religious aspect and a spiritual aspect. Showing compassion for people, helping others, and doing so not because you seek to gain a reward, but out of love for the Divine, your chosen deity, etc.  Some people are merely spiritual, they have stopped going to church every Sunday and attend unregularly, or going to temple, etc. They, instead, apply what they learned at church to their everyday life. They take examples from their religious figures and the representation of the Divine. Some people are only religious, they only focus on studying the religion, doing the rituals and practices, etc. None of these are wrong, they are merely different ways of experiencing the Divine. Usually those who are religious only or spiritual only merge into spiritually-religious people.
63863
Some would argue there is no difference, other's would say a soul is the person's morals and choices and inner conflicts... while their spirit is more their aura around them or their personality that is naturally given off without any words etc. Basically spirit = sense and feeling
432404
First, let's define religion, which is, essentially, man-made ritual. Spirituality, by contrast, is one's personal belief system, which may or may not correspond to a particular standardized doctrine. \n\nAs a Christian, I'm no fan of religion. Jesus was a good Jew, but He pretty much shattered everyone's notions of what "religion" was supposed to be. It's not about religion - that's what you do to show other people how great you are. It's about a relationship, which shows God how much you love Him.
1178728
Yes I am Religious.\nI am a Muslim and Islam is my religion.\nI think my life is better ,based on the inner peace and good qualities I have found in my self since becoming a practicing Muslim.
697431
To die for one's religion does not make a person "spiritual". It is an indication that the person suffers from severe delusions about "God" and life and purpose. History books are filled with Jim Joneses, the Heaven's Gate bunch and others like them.
784882
it is definitely more important to be spiritual\nreligion segregates whereas spirituality unites\n\nwhen one can fuse both though with a nice balance .. it can work
1045960
Yes. Religion is an organized system of belief in the divine.  In the context of religion, faith is the belief in such a system.