It is hard to draw a line between religion and spirituality, because of the general understanding of the two words. But religion is organized with rules, rituals, and doctrine, while spirituality is not organized. People who call themselves spiritual usually mean they believe in a spiritual world hereafter. If we are talking about spiritualism then we get into psychics, channelers, and such. There is a definite difference between religion and spirit. It could also be said we are all spiritual and religion is how the different organizations interact with spirit. It’s not easy.
I don’t believe there was ever a time man did not believe in spiritual things. The earliest cave drawings show a belief in the afterlife. As far as I know there has never been a group of people, ancient or modern, that didn’t practice some sort of spirituality. It is not religion that causes people to harm people, it is people following their fears of others.
Not absolutely necessary – a religion could consider the “spiritual” forces part and parcel of Nature, just one that works in a dimension inaccessible to our senses. And not all persons who believe in experiencing a supernatural/spiritual plane, follow defined religions. Conversely, some “religions” may be more along the lines of moral philosophies, codified and ritualized so a specific set of actions and discourses facilitate their observance by the followers (the root word means “that which creates a bond”).
In these boards, the more common reason to define the two terms separately is to distinguish religions, the sociocultural constructs that define specific patterns of conduct and doctrines, from the personal “experience” of perceiving or sensing there’s “something more” to existence than the merely naturalistic.
As many have said so far, that’s something quite unsupported to be “quite sure” about.
My interpretation of religious people speaking of ‘spiritual’ encounters or events is simply that they have an external locus of control-meaning that they believe feelings or thoughts which arise within them (or even the very things they do or say) are somehow visited upon them by something outside of them (in most cases ‘God’). I doubt very many religious/spiritual folks will claim to have spoken to or seen ‘God’ (in the literal sense of those verbs), so I presume that they percieve not uncommon experiences as having a different causes than non-religious/non-spiritual people do.
If the word ‘supernatural’ is taken to mean ‘anything which has not (yet) been observed in nature’, then yes, I believe so.
This is purely conjecture on my part, but I believe faith (in ‘God(s)’) arose when man (the race) witnessed some phenomenon beyond his comprehension of the natural laws that govern matter. Without the basis of a broad general knowledge from which to work or the tools necessary to explore and understand such seemingly inexplicable things, he simply invented his own hypothesis, i.e. “‘God(s)’ did it.” It seems that this hypothesis should have been discarded (I’m thinking of Laplace) somewhere along the line as more and more natural laws were discovered (and exploited), but, alas, religion is decidedly less scientific than…well…than science.
As to why is faith needed, I don’t believe it is (at least not in the theistic/religious sense.)
Because, for the most part, religious people have been raised within their specific faith, some more strictly than others. In any case, it is difficult to dismiss something that you have heard declaimed as fact for a number of decades, especially when the people you’ve heard repeating it are those who’ve been closest to you. As to the second question, I think a more pertinent phrasing would be; Why do religious people believe they must have faith to be who they are? Again, I think the answer lies within their inability (or at least reticence) to dismiss the ideas of those they trust.
I just wanted to add myself to the list of people labeling this statement ‘misguided’.
Not to take issue with the rest of this post-or your weltanschauung in general-Dio, but I think this needs to be amended to read “…which come from within themselves, but which they ascribe to forces/beings/what-have-you outside of themselves.”
Kancibird, I think you forgot at least one ‘perceived’ and a number of 'alleged’s in this post. As written, this sent me to Wikipedia for a look at the entry for ‘paranoia’.
Then we say that people believe in the “supernatural,” that means different things to different people. Some may believe in demons while others don’t even believe in hell. Some may believe in using crystals for healing and others may believe in the laying on of hands as do some major churches.
And the “supernatural” may be the most natural thing in the world. I can’t help but think of the part of the brain that perceives a spiritual presence when a certain part of the brain is stimulated. (Google: Dr. Persinger)
(It’s interesting to see the reaction of scientists to Persinger’s “God Machine.” Some scientists point to the experience as evidence that religious experience is just a matter of brain waves/chemistry, etc. Others with a different bias find it hopeful. Persinger, as far as I know, is still not taking a position.
I always took being “spiritual” was a way to cling to comforting beliefs while avoiding association with those who also held comforting beliefs while they killed lots of people. I don’t have a problem with it, per se, since a religious person who isn’t part of or supporting a religion-based power-structure (and all the attendant abuses) is harmless.
Several years ago, a woman gave birth to a baby with a serious heart defect. The only thing that could save the baby’s life was an experimental surgery that had never been done before. I believe the woman had no health insurance and not much money, so an entire surgical team donated its time and skills to perform the surgery at their own expense. The surgery was a success, and the baby lived.
A TV reporter said to the mother, “You must feel so grateful now.” The mother replied, “I want to thank all the people who prayed for my baby.”
This is GD. Anger is not appropriate here. Besides, I’m seeing lots of people disagreeing with the OP’s (absurd) statement implying that all was peace and harmony before the advent of religion.
So someone’s belief system is now a mental disorder? Human perception of and/or interaction with the above list of supernatural beings are biblically referenced.
People have been interacting with supernatural beings long before science was invented, I’d go as far that is is normal and natural for humans to do such and unnatural for humans not to do so . The bible just helps define the supernatural beings.
<snicker>
Most believers would not be so egotistical to claim that they had a “close encounter” with a god. Most believers don’t even believe other believers when they claim they interacted with god.
Science was never “invented,” by the way.
It just is. It’s been going on since people sprouted ears and eyeballs. When people got scared or couldn’t come up with the answer, they invented god. And the invention of the christian god came much later than the others.
And the Bible is nonsense. A mishmash of myth, highly distorted history, some outright lunacy and a wide variety of nastiness. And all passed through the hands of more word-of-mouth, translators and copyists with agendas than you can shake a stick at.
And yes, a belief system is a mental disorder, if the belief system is crazy, and religion is crazy. To the extent someone is religious, they are a lunatic.
There’s no evidence that anyone has interacted with anything supernatural, or that the supernatural is anything but lies and delusions, or that anything supernatural is even possible.
And the Bible isn’t a reliable source for anything.
Interaction with God the Father is a very rare occurance, God the Son, Jesus more often, but still rare, Interaction with the Hoy Spirit is very common for believers however. On the otehr side, direct interaction with Satan is rare, fallen angels also sort of rare, but demons (earth bound) appear common both for Christians and non-Christians, though they differ as to what they are perceiving - as demons could appear to be a good spirit or even God.