Similarities Between Spirituality And Spirituality

According to data from the Pew Research Center, Americans are becoming less religious, but, simultaneously, more spiritual. Often described as “nones,” these individuals have rejected the trappings of institutional religion, yet still feel “a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being as well as a deep sense of wonder about the universe.”

We all know that religion is an organized system regarding the spiritual or supernatural along with various practices that give numerous individuals a sense of purpose in the world and allows these individuals to understand things beyond their reach. However, while reading the articles from “Nones on the Rise,” it is evident that there is an increase in the number of individuals who claim unaffiliation to any religion in the United States. “Nones” gives the facts and figures of the Americans who do not place themselves in any religious category, with an approximate one in five of the public claiming no affiliation. But there are some individuals who denote themselves as spiritual or religious in some way. The entire article is an intriguing one because it breaks everything down, from what it means to be unaffiliated religiously to the composition of the unaffiliated, the demographics of the unaffiliated and theories as to why there is an increase in the numbers of the years. It is interesting to see how people view themselves when it comes to their beliefs.

Spirituality is defined as “of relating to sacred matters”. To many people this has different meanings. In the traditional modernistic western, this can be defined as being sacred to Christianity. In the Christian approach one is believed to be spiritual if they attend church and pray to Jesus and abide by the rules set by the bible. It is a sin to go against the bible and doing so leads to a consequence of praying for forgiveness to Jesus in hope for your eternal salvation of your soul. But to many, this type of church does not exist. To native-Americans, spirituality is defined as something more powerful than the church, stories and rituals is what takes part in fighting

Spirituality is defined as whatever or whoever gives ultimate meaning and purpose to a person’s life. Spirituality involves the particular ways of being present in the world that forms a relationship with others, oneself, and the universe (Kazanowski, 2013). On the other hand, religion is an affiliation or

A difficulty that has occurred commonly is that a definition of spirituality cannot be agreed on. In a broad explanation of both religion as well as spirituality, religion constitutes the organization of faith, implementing prayer, ministry and theology. Spirituality

Spirituality and religion hold different values and truths depending on your personal beliefs. Being religious is a belief or practice that contains certain values one should follow. When looking deeper into religion you can find spirituality which is the part of religion that effects our spirit and soul, it is not tangible. “The Sacred within” is spirituality and pertains to God dwelling inside of our heart and soul. When looking at “the sacred within” there are certain senses that we can tap into so, we may obtain that sort of spirituality. Through solitude, silence, imagination, and nature, we can have a better sense of spirituality.

Some may say that spirituality and religion are like two peas in a pond. They definitely are in the same area of study, but they are different in many aspects. Spirituality can be defined as a personal relationship with God or a higher being. Depending upon someone’s spirituality it can be described as a quality, journey, relationship or capacity (Janse van Rensburg, Poggenpoel, Myburgh, & Szabo, 2015). Whereas religion can be defined as an organized group that all members worship a higher being. Religion usually identifies in a group setting, whereas spirituality is more intimate and singular. Spirituality and religion is used as a coping mechanism in a wide variety of people’s homes (Elkonin, Brown, & Naicker, 2014). At the end of the day no matter what one believes or practices they are on a common ground of spirituality and religion.

As defined in work by Zyga (2015), the term spirituality refers to “a sense of purpose, a sense of ‘connectedness’ – to self, others, nature or ‘God’…the sense that there is more to life than the material or practical, and those activities that give meaning and value to people’s lives.”

What does it mean to be religious? According to John Bowker (2006), it can mean so many things to different people (p.6). Therefore, John Bowker argues that being religious does not have a perfect explanation and it does not mean one simple thing. I totally agree with John. I agree because “as a religion develops, disagreements can arise” (Coogan, p 10). Everyone had his or her own true meaning of being religious. In addition, religion is a key element in most human cultures. John and I believe that understanding the differences within a religion, you can cultivate many skills that will serve individuals well during their lifetime. For instance, I learned a lot about Christians and Muslins. I am not a very religious person, but I do believe there is a god. Within those two religions, a lot of debates occur about god. Christians believe that Jesus was the Son of God. Unlike Islam, Muslims do not believe that he was the Son of God. Islam suggests that Jesus was a prophet. Essentially, I trying to make a point that both have different views on religions, but both want to serve a purpose to be happy with in. My next question is what is a religion. I understand that when it comes to defining the term “religion” it tends to be difficult. As stated earlier, there are millions of definition or interpretations of the word. Nevertheless, we have to realize that even though it is hard to understand what make up a religion to different people, we have to understand that it serves a

And we provide them with a variety of options: Protestants, Catholic and a number of other choices. The group that we call religiously unaffiliated consists of those who identify themselves as atheists, along with those who describe themselves as agnostics. And then the single largest part of the religiously unaffiliated are people who say their religion is just nothing in particular” (NPR). Smith also mentions how many of the people who say their religion is “just nothing in particular” are of a younger generation. Even pop music singer Pink says, “I love Native American spirituality and paganism, and I've studied Buddhism. I think organized religion is one of the top problems of the world actually, so no, I'd say I steer clear of religion and go straight towards spirituality” (BBC). The rise of this type of spirituality has been driven by a sense that religion is out of keeping with modern values. People associate religious organizations with constraining doctrines that do not allow one to think for themselves. Others also view religion as narrow-minded and prejudicial, stifling the growth of the human spirit. Or worse, some people contend that religion is the worst of all evils, responsible for all the wars and conflicts around the world (the persecution of Jews, endless wars of religion, religious intolerance that leads to terrorism...). Lastly, it would also be valid to say that

Spirituality is defined by the Merriam-Webster (2015) dictionary as “the quality or state of being concerned with religion or religious matters.” That is the simple definition of it from a dictionary. In depth, spirituality is defined as a person’s beliefs, attitudes, values and connection

“Spirituality means something different to everyone. For some, it's about participating in organized religion: going to a church, synagogue, mosque, and so on. For others, it's more personal; some people get in touch with their

What is spirituality? And is it only related to religion? It is hard to answer these questions as there are a lot of definitions of spirituality and what is it related to. For some people, spirituality has no meaning outside the circle of the religion. On the other hand, some people say that spirituality can exist inside the religion and also outside the religion. People should stop relating spirituality to only religion. Instead, people should know the true meaning of spirituality outside the circle of the religion as it will open doors for knowledge and have a butter understanding and better life. In the United States, religion is frequently equated with spirituality or a personal relationship with God

Religion is a spiritual system in which one can depict the sacred or divine through their own conceptions of consciousness and of what ultimately matters to them. A religion is more than a belief system, it can involve ritual practices, moral codes and various types of social organization (Lecture: 09/11). Religion does not strictly entail a god to worship upon, but often a sense of feeling one with the supernatural. Many people believe in god and do not practice regular prayer but still carry a devotion to this idea of a sacred being. Upon personal belief, I feel religion is up to each individual in their own journey of life to depict what spirituality brings to them with rules or not. Religion can bring freedom to ones life along with guidance making it up to the beholder.

     Spirituality and psychology are two complex subjects to discuss and they become even more complicated when you try to relate one to the other. Psychology deals with the processes of sense perception, thinking, learning, cognition, emotions and motivations, and personality, focusing on the behavior of individuals. Spirituality, on the other hand, is all inclusive. “Spirituality is living one's life from the realization that the body/mind/ego personality we have been taught to identify with is just the tip of our iceberg, our little head sticking through the window of the senses into this world, whereas our true body is the universe. It is recognizing that our perceived world is mostly an illusion, a shared