That is quite the understatement.
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Are you spiritual, religious, or irreligious?
- Thread starter Gambit
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That is quite the understatement.
Incidentally, I encourage you to get acquaintanced with the term, Gambit. It is far better than "religion" or "spirituality" in so many ways.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
That would qualify as irreligious which is an option.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
So you're making spiritual a subset of religious? That isn't clear, and the semantics will continue to be tricky.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Oh, not at all. It does have several different meanings, that much is true, and some context is usually needed for clarity.
But the same is even more true of "religion" and "spirituality", which both have additional drawbacks.
"Religion" has more meanings than dharma, and several are frankly at odds with each other, to the point of several being depreciative.
"Spirituality" is for the most part meant to be unclear, even more so than "religion". It is a politically correct word that fills the role of an answer without taking the duty to be one.
By its turn, "dharma" various meanings are largely complementary as opposed to mutually exclusive.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
The semantics are tricky. That's just the way it is. But I'm not making anything. I'm simply asking the question.
I can't tell from your link what "spiritual" is supposed to mean.
Religious: I believe in higher powers, and other worlds and planes of existence. It's not a deep mysticism, so I guess that does make me more Religious. However, I don't perform prescribed rituals because there really are none for the individual. Group rituals exist (blóts and symbels) but they are few and far between. I say prayers and recite poems to the gods, I make small offerings, and try to live as faithfully to the ideals of Asatru, and be as faithful to the Gods as possible.
In that, it is just slightly more ambiguous than "God" or "religion". Which is no coincidence, alas.
JRMcC
Active Member
Nice observation. Religion and spirituality are both ambiguous terms. If you follow an abrahamic religion you certainly are spiritual.
However, (depending on what one means by religious), one who is spiritual isn't necessarily religious. When I use the term religious, I'm thinking that that includes certain physical activities that are supposed to have some sort of impact on your spiritual development. So communion in a Catholic church would be a religious activity while silent prayer in your home would be a spiritual activity.
That's just my view, let me know what you think!
Levite
Higher and Higher
Yeah, I'm not arguing the two terms are synonymous. In fact, I would argue that "spirituality" is the broader term, encompassing both organized paths of spiritual discipline and ideology ("religion") and less organized paths or even completely individualized and irregular collections of ideas and practices. All religions are (in theory) spiritual, but not all spirituality is religious.
My hesitation about your definition above, though, is that silent prayer (in one's home or elsewhere) is still an activity, usually with some sort of physical component (sitting, standing, composing oneself to calmness, if not other ephemera often deemed conducive to prayer: music playing, incense burning, candle lit, etc.) that is supposed to have some sort of impact on your spiritual development. It might be a completely self-defined impact, or a barely-defined impact, or a minimal impact; the impact might be entirely self-related (building focus, building calmness, enhancing one's peace, etc.) or might be related to God or gods (connecting with the object/s of one's worship or veneration) or might be more pragmatically metaphysical (increasing one's awareness and readiness for enlightenment, connecting oneself with nature or the cosmos, etc.) but if it had no impact at all, what would be the purpose of doing it?
And by the same token, a religious activity may incorporate physical elements, but they may also be relatively free of them, and fairly spiritually oriented: many religions practice silent prayer, meditation, vision questing, chanting, etc.
Gambit
Well-Known Member
Then you're probably not it.
So spirituality is like pornography, then?
I know it when I see it - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
JRMcC
Active Member
Hmmm true. I'm not so sure what the difference between the two is anymore.
There are certain things I do, like for example I concentrate on a flame or repeat mantras when I meditate, but I do it because it helps my concentration. None of my spiritual activities are done because I expect a reward or punishment, and I don't feel obligated to do any activity for the sake of a god figure.
I suppose in my mind a religious person is someone who performs certain actions or abstains form certain activity because some sort of scriptures instructs them to do that. Or they believe certain things because they want to get into heaven or something like it. Maybe part of the difference is that spiritual and religious people are motivated by different things.
I'll have to think about what you said though. Thanks for the thoughts!
- James
Muffled
Jesus in me
I believe I am all three but I figure that I am more spiritual.
Muffled
Jesus in me
Ro 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
I believe we all have to hump it to some extent.