Religion is an important aspect of life which is characterized by a set of beliefs, world views as well as cultural systems with which humanity relates the supernatural.
Religion is quite different from being religious. One can be religious without necessarily subscribing to any religion. This is possible because a person can lead a morally upright life that is characteristic of religious living without necessarily having beliefs that are attributed to any religion. In order to understand these two concepts, religion should be looked at as an independent institution while being religious should be understood as a kind of devotion of the self in acknowledging the powers of the divinity (Haught 1990).
On the other hand, being spiritual is again a lot more different from being religious. When one is spiritual then it means that they act in faith in regard to their personal beliefs in God. This in other words makes a person relies on his or her heart to act in accordance to what they hold dear. Being religious on the other hand means that one worships God in the context of teachings that are modeled by man which act as a blueprint on how one is supposed to conduct themselves in regard to religion and also worship
Throughout the course these concepts have been highlighted. Even though they seem confusing and more like each other, the bottom line is that after going through them, it became clear that both are independent of each other. All that I learnt changed my understanding and perception of them to such an extent that I can judge myself on grounds of whether I am spiritual or religious and whether religion is different from being religious (Kalman 2009).
References
Haught, J. P. (1990). What is Religion: An Introduction. Mahwah: Paulist Press
Kalman, B. (2009). What is Religion? New York: Crabtree
