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| I feel there is a difference between some one who is religious and some one who is spiritual. I fit in the spiritual category, I don’t claim I’m any certain denomination, but I do believe in God. I don’t go to a church to worship God, I believe He is every where. I pray from my heart..not from something that is written. I read the Bible and try to live my life the way that God would want me to. I don’t need a priest/minister to confess my sins to..I ask God, Himself for forgiveness. A religious person to me, is some one who relates to a certain denomination and practices their beliefs. They attend church to worship and they confess to a priest or minister for their sins. A religious follows their denomination in how they should live their life, even be told.
Are you religious or spiritual?
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| I can see why you would describe yourself as spiritual rather than religious, because the religion that most of us in the Western world have grown up with involves the elements that you mention (dogma, mandatory church attendance, the clergy as an intermediary, etc.) But I could take the reference to the Bible and to a single god (Yahweh) out of your description, and I might just as easily be speaking of someone who follows a NeoPagan path. One of the key points in the definition of Pagan religion is that Pagans tend to be pantheists. That is, we feel no great need to go to church because we believe all of Creation is infused with the divine spirit. Nor do Pagans feel a need to seek out a professional clergy member for confession or spiritual guidance, as we believe that as part of Creation we are also infused with divinity. My test for spiritual vs religious people is pretty simple: does the person speak of God (or Goddess, or multiple deities)? If so, they are religious. Most of the people I’ve met who self-identify as spiritual but not religious will say they don’t feel a need to personify the life-giving force in the Universe. By comparison, growing up in Quebec I met a lot of people who were “croyant, non-pratiquant” – “believers by not actively practising the faith.” Most of these people considered themselves religious, but had lived through the Quiet Revolution of the 60s and had come to appreciate having a choice to commune with God quietly in their own way. There may be an overlap between these types and those who identify as “SBNR” or “spiritual, but not religious.” But as the very root meanings of both religion (literally “to bind back again,” especially to God) and spirituality (infused with the air, with life-force, with the divine spark) also overlap, it doesn’t surprise me. | |
| I am spiritual. I am not the person who is always at the church during Sunday. I am in church because I visits Adoration Chapel. I praise God to all of his blessings, I ask his forgiveness and hope he will bring me mercy, but sure it is. I do believe in God. At home, I stop everything I am working when I know someone is needing a prayer. I pray. I help people with my prayer. Sometimes even with strangers. I know my purpose is to pray for people prayer. My relationship with God is that he is a father to me. I tell him everything. I am spiritual. I do not follow certain rules that came from church but I follow the rules of God. | |
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same with me sis. In the past, I had to attend church services because my dad insisted that we had to devote ourselves to God on Sundays at 7am in the morning. How we dreaded to be tagged along, we couldn’t sit without fidgeting here and there. However, we do looked forward to breakfast which is after the mass has ended. We loves the Kway Teow Soup and Barley water. That is what we could think of. After I was married to my Buddhist hubby, I had stopped visitng the church. You can call me a Holy Cow, but I do pray at home with my rosary daily. My mom gave me a broken Virgin Mary statue because she had a new one. I glued up Mary’s head and I felt closer to her day by day. You don’t have to go to church, show your face to the priest / pastor or your friends. It is your heart where God stands in. You pray with a pure heart, no hatred, no vengeance but seek help and forgiveness. I bet God would be happy to see me praying daily than going to church once a week! | |
| @peachpurple that is what I am thinking too sissy, if I have God in my heart and talk to him regularly, it is more than being in the church every Sunday, but we are not saying it is right, but I know we have a loyal and understanding God, and he knows it. Sometimes I am going to mass, but there is something about the priest belief and sermon that I don’t like. Sometimes when I am visiting the church, it seems that I able to be prejudice the sermon, the people around me and I only commit sin. I don’t want that. I want to be in Adoration Chapel more because of this.
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| @jodee stout am quite impressed at the way you view being spiritual, all those things that you do are all right but if you may permit to ask why don’t you go to church? you know church is not just about reading the bible and doing right or praying and just talking to God. being spiritual means fellowship, ministry, evangelism worship and the like and I have not heard you speak of all that. this is indeed a huge topic I just thought maybe I could spell out a few things am not saying that I know it all but that is what I have been taught. As for a religious person I feel those are the people who go to church listen to the word sing and that’s it they don’t really practice what they hear. |
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