Comparing religion and spirituality gives us a clearer understanding and appreciation of spirituality. The main differences between religion and spirituality lie in the traditional areas of belief, ritual, and morality. All religions have these three basic components: 1) dogma or beliefs. 2) rituals or ceremonies; 3) Ethics or a set of laws regulating behaviour. In these areas I will compare religion to spirituality.
Faith versus experience
Religions have a set of teachings that all members must believe in. If a member believes differently and teaches others to do so as well, he or she is classified as a non-believer and may be excommunicated or excluded from that religious group. Thus Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions have a different set of beliefs. In religions, unity of belief is of paramount importance.
In spirituality while there are certain teachings that are not emphasized as much as they are emphasized as personal experience. Spiritual people may be members of different religions but have the same or similar experience. Christian mystics focus on the experience of union with the divine. So do Hindu or Muslim mystics. They may differ in the means of achieving this union with God but they agree that this should be experienced as the goal of their spiritual life.
Ritual versus intimacy
In religions, there are certain religious rites or rituals that aim to express the human relationship with the deity. In Christianity, we have the sacraments and religious services like Mass, preaching service, worship singing, etc. In some religions, this is so important that a person is obliged to perform these rituals as a means of salvation, like the ritual of baptism.
In spirituality, the focus is not so much on ritual as on a personal intimacy with the deity, usually achieved through personal prayer and meditation, activities that are somewhat antithetical to ritual. The ritual takes place in a crowd or group of people. Meditation is usually done in solitude and silence.
You can see now that there really is a contradiction between religion and spirituality.
Morality vs. Mercy
Religions produce a set of rules that must be followed. This is usually expressed in written laws and oral traditions. Thus the Catholic Church has a code of canon law. Other Christian churches have written policies or a system of precedents. Muslims have Sharia law. Hindus have their own laws, particularly laws that regulate their behavior in their respective castes. After a while the tendency is to increase the number of laws and their codification.
In spirituality, the primary focus in human behavior is compassion for all of creation. I was about to write “love” instead of “sympathy” in the subtitle. But over the years the word “love” has lost much of its true meaning. In almost all symposiums, conferences on spiritual compassion stand out as the most important attitude required of human beings toward creation. This mercy begins with realizing our oneness with God and with all creation. It is not simply a matter of feeling but expressed in acts of kindness towards all we meet, human beings or other parts of creation. The tendency in spiritualism is to simplify the laws, just as Jesus did, and reduce them all to two parts: love of God and love of neighbor.
The question I would like to ask is: Which do you think is better, religion or spirituality? My opinion is that both are essential to human life. Religion acts as cement in human culture. But with recent studies going on about spirituality, we will see an increasing number of men and women becoming more spiritual rather than religious. Perhaps churches that have lost active members, as in certain regions of Europe, can shift their focus from religion to spirituality and give meaning to life to an increasing number of people. Religion vs spirituality will raise the awareness of more people to know more fixed values in life.