Difference Between Religion and Spirituality

Many times, people use terms such as spirituality and religion interchangeably. However, there is still no huge difference; they are not the same.

A significant difference between Religion and spirituality is that Religion is analogous to institutions formed by man for several reasons.

Key Takeaways

1. Religion is an organized system of beliefs, rituals, and practices centered around a higher power or deity.
2. Spirituality encompasses personal beliefs and experiences, focusing on the individual’s connection to a higher power or the universe.
3. While religion is often formal and structured, spirituality allows for more personal exploration and interpretation of beliefs.

Religion vs Spirituality

The difference between Religion and Spirituality is that spirituality develops and is born in an individual that extends to all human life’s perspectives. Spirituality could be kick-started with revelation or religion. Religion is created or defined by man, whereas spirituality is defined by god and manifests god’s nature.

An individual can find spirituality deep inside themselves that defines how an individual loves, accepts and relates things to the world and people around them. It cannot be found anywhere one needs to believe.

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Comparison Table

Parameter of Comparison	Religion	Spirituality
Origin	They are based on lives, beliefs, teachings, and archetypal or historical figures.	Based on the practical application of significant teachings.
Objective and experience	Focuses more on books of scriptures, eternal rituals, observances, and worship places.	Focuses more on internalization and awareness of the soul and self-referral.
Traditionality	It is rooted in doctrine, ritual, creed and religion.	Focuses more on evolutionary mentality.
Exclusive	It is based more on rigid interpretations of various teachings.	It favours a more inclusive approach.
Belief	It is more about faith, belief and unconditional acceptance.	It leans more towards direct experience with divinity and soul.

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What is Religion?

According to the formal definition, religion is a well-defined collection of several cultural systems and worldwide views which can be related to the existence of humanity.

All different religions have sacred histories, symbols, and narratives that explain meaningful life or the origin of life.

In the world, there are thousands of religions and all of them have scriptures, holy places, and adherence. All religions contain mythologies. Several times, religion is interchanged with a belief system, faith or set of duties.

People derive lifestyle preferences, religions, laws, morality, and ethics based on beliefs in human nature and the cosmos.

A religious practice includes sermons, commemoration, deities, sacrifices, dance, art, music, public service mediation or various aspects of culture followed by humans.

 

What is Spirituality?

For many individuals, spirituality is a very vast concept from different perspectives. It is a sense of connection with something significantly bigger than ourselves.

It focuses more on searching for meaning in life. It is a universal experience, which every human experience that touches everyone.

It is more kind of seeking meaning through connectives with art and nature.

It lets an individual sense the purpose, and for every individual, spirituality has different definitions that might change throughout life while adapting to new relationships and experiences.

Spirituality incorporates several elements of religion, such as belief, comfort, ethics, awe, and reflection. Spirituality improves emotional health since both of them influence each other and focus on all well-being aspects.

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Main Differences Between Religion and Spirituality

1. Religions do have various lists of right and wrong for the mola code. At the same time, spirituality is about the laws of the universe. Spirituality is not in love and moral codes, right or wrong, nor worshipping any deity, but it does represent various facts and laws in the inner self.
2. Spirituality is about studying your inner self and how different university laws affect an individual. At the same time, religion is all about worshipping god. Both of them are neither wrong nor right but different.
3. In religion, an individual believes in outside power known as god, whereas spirituality is the belief in inner power.
4. Spirituality is a very personalized approach followed privately. An individual explores and practices spirituality on his own. At the same time, religion is a more kind of group activity where like-minded people socialize with each other and practice religion.
5. A belief in some others’ experience is a religion, whereas a belief in their own experience is spirituality. It is a very accurate and significant statement. When an individual is solely spiritual, one learns from their experiences, trial, and error.
6. When an individual is a member of a religion, one learns from the different experiences of different people.
7. It is possible that an individual can be spiritual but not religious since one needs to practice what is there in spirituality. But one cannot be religious by not being spiritual; an individual needs to follow all the principles of spirituality to become religious.
8. Religion helps in spiritual development by providing a framework from which one can conclude and seek knowledge. Religion and spirituality are intertwined for several people, but it isn’t easy to separate them, resulting in a holistic approach to spirituality and religion.
9. Spirituality is more about finding truths, fulfilment, connections, truths and many more. Spirituality would encourage all humans to follow their ways and make stories. It would help humans to set a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment, which can be only limited to the inner self.

References

1. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2e8a/8711be23fdcc16cf3c6db98fbd23877f6037.pdf
2. https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/58/1/36/
3. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327582ijpr0901_2