The Difference Between Spirituality and Religion

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The Difference Between Spirituality and Religion
By Brandon Songer


Religion is concerned with ideas and rules that are supposedly given by a higher source that is external.

Spirituality is about looking within for knowledge for the higher source.

Religion usually has a person who claims only he/she can interpret what those rules actually mean because God is apparently not able to speak in clear, concise language when he gives us orders.

Spirituality encourages you to make up your own mind by developing your own intuition and higher sensory, just as enlightened masters have done for thousands of years.

Religion is about keeping an established order and waiting for a future event.

Spirituality is about continual change and growth. That which does not grow and change is stagnant.

Religion tells you what to believe and does not allow for questioning, free thinking or personalization. There is no journey since nothing ever changes.

Spirituality recognizes the subjectiveness of perspective and its effects on growth. It recognizes the being and the journey.

Religion always deals with intangible (even in a spiritual sense) and unreachable concepts. Many religions ask believers to accept and have faith in ideas that they admit are impossible to understand.

Spirituality is about experiencing what the Universe has to offer. There are ways to experience God directly on many levels.

Religion demands faith since it brings no proof.

Spirituality is about direct experience instead of faith. It is about seeing for yourself what the secrets of the Universe are.

Religion has an "us and them" mentality. You have to be in the club to be worth anything.

Spirituality is freely available to anyone.

Religion is full of rules and trivial ideas about life amounting to a recipe book for living.

Spirituality has no books and no God dictating how things will be done. It gives the truest free choice there is.

Religion converts based on fear and punishment. Always spoken of are horrible consequences for not following the program.

Spirituality is based on communion and interaction. All things have there place in the Universe, no matter what choices are made.

Religion posits God as a father figure who is just waiting to judge.

Spirituality shows that you really only ever judge yourself.

Religion has made God in man's image.

Spirituality knows that its the other way around but not in the way that everyone believes.

Religion teaches you that its impossible to please god so you must have faith or rely on being saved.

Spirituality teaches us that there is no saving necessary, only varying degrees of development.

Religion externalizes everything.

Spirituality brings everything together. (more...)