Religion v Spirituality

it really all depends on how you look at the two subjects.religion tends to evoke ideas of institutionalized ritual. but it doesn't really have to include such things. and institutionalized ritual doesn't have to involve anything supernatural.spirituality tends to evoke solitary explorations of self and beyond. but it doesn't have to be hoodoo. spirituality includes such solidly science-defended things such as meditation. while that particular practice is often based on other understandings, meditation-type thought centering practices are widely recognized by the scientific community as having very real benefits. but, they don't come from the hoodoo, they come from yourself.as far as i'm concerned, religion and spirituality are nothing more than exploring the world around you and taking note of how it affects you. different people have different answers, but all ritual is ritual and all exploration is exploration.no, i don't mean "science is just another god" but that where we choose to look for answers does not change that we are looking for answers. you may or may not be satisfied with the answers or non-answers you get. that's your issue.

it isn't, really. that's the point.

no, it isn't. curiosity (that is excessive curiosity) and wanderlust are subset of that which makes up spirituality. just like christianity isn't the sum total of religion.

my previous post:message 6 yes. unfortunately for this simile, christianity is a very specific and ritualized religion. others are not. they can be. that's the thing about both religion and spirituality. they are always very individual. it's how a person answers questions for himself. exactly. but how is that different from anything else subjective (as though, when people are concerned,there are objective things)? according to whom? there are loads of "spiritualists" and "mystics" who are strict followers of traditional religions. modern "spirituality" tends to be a function of new-age, post native american wooo wooo, but that doesn't change the nature of spirituality in general.the problem is that people tend to define a thing by it's current, most popular, most vocal incarnation. spirituality is no more defined by new age wooo wooo than christianity is defined by mandaean gnostics.

i know. life's rough.

because it means different things to different people. to some, it is a more mystical or sensual version of a normal religion. to some, it's new-age hoodoo.i think it's anything that looks outside the present experience. as far as i'm concerned, any abstract thought might qualify.