Spirituality and/or Religion

 Spirituality has been part of the life of Humanity since we first began to be able to think and speak. It was, in part, Humanities way of trying to explain a vast and wonderful Universe that scared the living daylights out it.

And very quickly Religion was birthed from Spirituality. The two have walked together, in an increasingly uneasy "alliance", ever since. It was, and for some still is, thought that they were one and the same.

The difference, in my experience which has formed my opinion, between the two was this, Spirituality is all about a personal relationship with something greater than one's self in some fashion. Religion is about codifying a set of rules and behaviors and then enforcing those codes, with a person as an intermediary and interpreter between a person and their relationship to something greater than themselves.

As a little side note, it is said in the recovery world, "Religion is for those who are afraid to go to hell. Spirituality is for people who have already been there".

For a long time they could be mostly indistinguishable as each and every group, Tribe, Clan, whatever designation they had for them as people and others as not people, developed belief systems that had a bunch of different gods for various aspects of life. Most gods had very similar aspects from one group to another so some identification between groups could be found.

And thus Religion United and Divided at the same time. The gods one worshipped were very similar to the gods that your neighbor worshipped. Thus you could exist along side each other mostly. Divided because the name and form of worship of these gods identified immediately if you were Us or Them.

There are examples of this in our own "holy" books. In the old testament you see this with the battles between the Israelites and the Edomites. They were separated by their gods. By the choice of the invaders, AKA the Israelites, the enemy was identified by their Religious Identification.

Just an FYI, they were not yet a Monotheistic Religion. That came later. When the first commandment, "Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength", that was an outcry against the people leaving the group by allying themselves with a different god.

And that is how religion becomes a Nationalistic Tool of Subjugation. A tool which the Romans used very effectively in their wars of expansion. The gods obviously favored them because they kept winning.

It was when religions became Monotheistic that the biggest divide of Spirituality and Religion really happened. Unlike religions with multiple gods and identification of aspects of god hood with gods of others religions monotheistic gods were the One and Only God, thus Mono, and the religion backing that god became "The One True Religion" better than all others.

And Monotheistic gods also demanded that unbelievers be converted or wiped out.

And thus we now have religions demanding total obedience to the rules and strictures of that religion. The slightest variation will lead to proscription, banning, expulsion, and even death.

And we now have the beginning of the true Religiously driven Governments and Wars.

We have the Holy Wars of Christianity, especially the Crusades in the "Holy Land" of the mid east. And the Jihads of Islam. They are the two biggest offenders.

And, in the modern day of right now, the Ethnic Cleansing of the Balkans and different parts of Africa, and the Genocide in the Gaza Strip.

So there we are, what really distinguishes Spirituality from Religion.

Spirituality is internal. The Spiritual person is looking within themselves for a Personal Relationship with something Greater than Themselves. Whether an Internal sense of Unity with it all or a with a God out there, does not matter. It is internal and not in competition or conflict with any other way of seeing that exists.

Religion is external. The Religious person has joined a cohesive group that has a structure guided by those in a hierarchy of leaders who enforce a view of the external deity and a set of rules of what to believe and how to believe it. It is all external and in conflict to a greater or lesser degree with those who do not believe as they do. Even those within the umbrella of the same Religion.

And that is why, I think, that as the world develops we are seeing more and more people leaving religion and not bringing their children up in religion. And religion is reacting badly. By getting stricter and stricter and very reactive. Co-opting Government wherever possible to try to enforce their beliefs on the rest of society. It is bad.

So there you go folks. My bit of History and viewpoints on this.

I invite comment. Agree, disagree, nit pick it, whatever. And be respectful. This is, for some, a very charged topic. Be respectful of others thoughts and beliefs about this.

The only "commandment" that matters to me:

"We must all love each other or die. Love is the only rational act".