A question for all

Do you think that there is a difference between religion and the quest for spiritually? I'm not trying to give my opnion, just speaking on this reality.

Spiritualism is seeking knowledge and enlightenment on your own accord with no limits or rules. Religion is doing the same thing but with others and with limits and rules.
You See????????

very much, well in my opinion anyhow.

religion implies taking on an existing belief system and practising it by the book

a quest for spirituality is a much more fluid thing. It may involve passing through a series of religious beliefs, but not necessarily so. I'd say it implies a much more questioning attitude.

IMO, the difference between spirituality & religion is the same as the difference between the search for understanding (self & others) & the surrender to dogma.

To me, this is the whole thing that makes religion into a conspiracy unto itself...Preaching the dogma that controls the hearts & minds of those who have given up the path to true enlightenment.


[Edited on 15-3-2003 by MidnightDStroyer]

midnight i couldn't have said it better my self. When I was in like 3rd grade I thought I wasn't good enough to go to heaven. The Jesus thing never used to make sense to me. I have made peace with God and hope that he understands my confusion in this insane world.

Well religion and spiritually are in many ways divergent, but if we come to think of it religion is probably the result of someone's own spiritual path and experience told to other people and accepted by them, so maybe they are not that different.

It's also true that religion is dogma, but it isn't true that spritual quaests aren't dogmatic on it's own. I won't even bother getting into the nihilism question, just think about someone who quits xtianity because he is fed up with christian dogma, now most of the times this kind of people think to themselves they will openmindedly choose their own spiritual path, what they forget to understand is that maybe there isn't No spiritual path and they don't even think about that. Also most of them still refuse to reject the idea of the existence of a God, they also (and I can't avoid getting into nihilist grounds...) are dogmatic in values morals and ethics, in the way they view their world, so spirituallity is not as free thinking asmost of people do think.

Also with the given time spirituality always turns to dogma, most of times anyway heh...

Still, there is a definite link of common ground between the spiritual & religious...After all, religions have always started out with the concept of trying to come to grips with a person's spirituality.

The biggest problem with organizing & spreading a religion is that, by neccesity, they must grab on to secular power in order to grow as a religion...And that's what takes them off track with helping people to realize their aspects of individual spirituality.

To spread & grow more easily, the first Christians took ideals & aspects from the older religions that they were trying to convert from & modified those aspects into their own "flavor"...This made it easier for conversion because the missionaries could show a non-beleiver how close Christianity was to their own current religion.

By that same process, Christianity itself changed & evolved into something that I think Christ himself would have trouble recognizing. This is merely the most recognizable religion that I've studied that has done this, but other religions are guilty of it too.

And this is how I think the "conspiracy" of religion originated...

Yet, some of the newer religions, most commonly referred to as "New Age" religions, are at the most basic point, trying to recapture that essence of individual spirituality without getting all tied up in the "conspiracy" of dogma resulting from such compromise.