Religion and Spirituality
MadMan has a pretty interesting discussion going on at the “cartel’s blog” about - AnarCapLib: Spirituality without religion? To be real simple, spirituality and religion are two different things. I think many people use religion as a tool to hone their spiritual side, while religion is not a necessary ingredient in achieving spiritual satisfaction.
Man in general, is a pretty conceited being. I think most of us would be disappointed if someone told us all our purpose in life is to be born, live, die and be part of the biological waste on the planet. We cannot stand to believe that our lives are essentially similar to those of any other living beings on earth, except for the fact that we can think more and have mastered the capability of making ourselves and others around us miserable. We believe we are special and need to believe that there is some higher purpose for our birth other than just a biological cycle.
This is essentially what I think spirituality means to most of us - a way for us to try and figure out some higher meaning in our mundane lives - a way for us to give ourselves some kind of purpose. this exercise doesn’t necessarily require us to believe in a higher being than ourselves (as religion requires), just a higher place for us human beings in the animal kingdom’s hierarchy. The belief in higher beings only gives us one more level of beings with a special purpose in life, so that makes our wish to give our lives a higher meaning not so much of a daydream.
p.s. I know this can come off pretty cynical, but that is not how I mean it at all - this is how I see most people using the terms religion and spirituality. I am not commenting on the pros and cons of religion or spirituality either - to each their own.