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I am very Spiritual and I believe in God, or a higher power, call it what you want. I also believe in Buddha and his teachings I believe in KARMA, I believe in Good and Evil. I dont believe you have to go to church to be a good person, or give money in the collection plate to secure your place in heaven. And I dont believe God keeps forgiving people over and over again when they keep doing the same thing over and over again that is not right. I dont believe you develop spirituality its something thats in you, you feel it. Some people use their church as a social network... I was raised in a home that had religion but as we grew up we were able to go to the church of our choice.

I was raised in the Catholic religion, but found myself seriously disagreeing with its teachings by the time I was 8. I kept my opinions and beliefs to myself until I got to college, then pretty much stopped pretending to be Catholic. Over the years since, I've come to realize that I really am not a Christian, either, but I absolutely believe in god, a higher power, a higher consciousness, whatever one wants to call it. I've been accused by my former boss (a Baptist turned Methodist) as not having any spiritual beliefs because I don't proselytize my beliefs. I think that we each find our own way, some through organized religion, some not. I don't feel the need for organized religion, but for those that do, that find comfort or strength in it's teachings, more power to them. I find my strength and comfort in my own beliefs, and I consider myself a very spiritual person, but I don't feel the need to try to convince anyone to believe as I do.

I think it would be very, very difficult, if not impossible to sustain a relationship with someone who was deeply involved in any form of organized religion as my experience has been that everyone that I have met who is deeply involved in their church also tends to believe that they have found the one true religion or path and, out of love for their friends and fellow man, want to try to convince me of the rightness of their path and the wrongness of mine. May not be true in all cases, but it's just the experience that I have had.

There are people who attend church who are not spiritual at all, they are either there out of habit or for show.

we used to call them weekend yo-yo's. was raised catholic. but do not follow any of the churches any where.

for giggles, years ago, i went to a baptist bible class. the pastor told us to open our bibles to a page

and then he started to preach on it. all i could think of was---what the hell is he talking about---did

not have any thing to do with what was in the book. i questioned about that and got kicked out

for being a non-believer. he twisted every thing on that page to something that did not exist.

anything to do with what was in the book.

Wow. Seems like we agree that spiritual and religious are separate possibilities. And many of us are disillusioned with the current state of organized religion.
I do think there could be problems if your partner strongly identifies with a certain sect and you dont follow their "rules".

Yes, definitely. I could never mate up with a fundamentalist Christian nor Muslim for our belief system and approach to day to day living vary too widely. If I don't belong to a certain sect I feel no compunction to follow their rules. It's as simple as that.

I would never date a holy roller or bible beater... call the what you want. I want someone who believes what I believe. He doesnt have to follow my thoughts and beliefs to a T. But it helps if we are on the same ground. And the bible has been changed over and over again by the people who rewrote in their own words. There were so many chapters of the bible written by/for women that were omitted... I believe people have to do what is good for them.

This is a very interesting topic and I have read all your posts closely. There are many ways to try to connect with the infinite. I see that as the reason why so many "religions" exist. Naturally, each proclaims from the highest roof top to represent the only "true" path. I guess the bottom line is that some folks in the end are going to be disappointed. HA.

I can only address with any knowledge the difference between religious and spiritual in the context of Christianity, since that is where my personal experience lies. I DO NOT claim that any approach is necessarily right or wrong. Please know too that these are my definitions and not those of the management.

A) Religious: I see religious people divided into two groups. One is those belonging to conservative sects which cling steadfastly to dogma and profess to already know the truth. The second is the progressive sects who seek the truth using a framework provided by their organized church, but look outside traditional dogma to continue down their life's path.

B) Spiritual: A person who seeks understanding of the truth as an individual using any resource deemed helpful, including inner reflection, to progress in their search.

I would like to throw in a quote from Joseph Campbell: "God is a metaphor for that which human speech can not describe nor the human mind understand." So really, who knows?

I like Joseph Campbell's quote.

I think most of us in the post look at religious as being focused on a specific way of worshiping God. Where as spiritual is believing in a higher power or attempting to understand the universe. They are not mutual exclusive nor mutual inclusive. You may be religious and spiritual or religious and not spiritual or spiritual and not religious. I was brought up Catholic and the church has many good qualities and bad qualities. It gave me a set of good rules to live by. I don’t go to church now but will when I move with my sons and their mother (my X) won’t be there to take them. I would not call my self spiritual either. The big questions that many have don’t really intrigue me. I am more interested in science then faith. If there is a heaven then I have lived a good life and should get there. (those rules the Catholics taught me) If there isn’t then it doesn’t matter anyway.

I consider myself "spiritual". I'm baptized Lutheran, yes it gave me a good foundation to "live by". I believe in a "God". I don't believe I need to sit in a building to "worship" that God or be a member of an organized religion. I feel closer to that God when I'm outdoors in the midst of all the wonder of our earth or spending time with a child. I agree, you can be one or the other or both. I truly feel it doesn't matter the religion, we all have the same basic belief.