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You are here: Home > Insights & Research > Youth Voices > Spirituality is different from religion Spirituality is seen as different from, and more expansive than, religion and religious observance. “Like, I guess they’re two different things, [but] they’ve got a lot in common.”
(Male, 17, U.S.A.) “Spiritual is something one experiences in your own being, religion is, well, your religion. The most of our religion is forced – the do’s and don’t – being spiritual means standing on a mountain with the wind blowing through your hair, and the feeling of being free.” (Female, 15, South Africa) "I have met two people. The first is my grandmother who is very religious; and the other one is my mother who is quite spiritual, mainly due to her illness. My mother, when she meditates starts talking to God, wondering; she thinks about herself in a spiritual way. But my grandmother spends all day in church, praying 40 Our Father's, she has her own altar. Maybe she is also spiritual, with all the rosaries she prays?"
(Female, Peru) “The religious is somebody who has gone in depth into the religion and he knows a lot about his religion, while the spiritual is more in control of his soul.” (Male, 18, Syria) “I think I could go to another religion and have the same or better spirituality.”
(Female, 17, U.S.A.) “When we go to the prayer we get a very different feeling. You could be bored and not happy but that change after the prayer.” (Male, Syria) “Religion is like creating boundaries for spirituality.”
(Pune, NW India) “Spirituality is the search for answers and religion provides the answers.” (Female, 15, England) “Being religious means not to disobey what your religion calls for. Being spiritual to me means actually having a conversation or thinking …”
(Male, 11, U.S.A.) “Religion is more of a place … it’s there, you’re supposed to find spirituality.” (Female, 17, U.S.A.) “Spirituality is something open, without limitation.”
(Female, 15, China) “To be spiritual is more your personal relationship with God and it means to be spiritual the whole time, and to be religious happens sometimes, while other times you become drunk and things like that.” (Female, South Africa) “Religious is being told by the Imam … spiritual is more like doing things for yourself, like praying to Allah."
(Female, 15, England) “’Religious’ is kind of knowing the things in your head, but ‘spiritual’ is knowing them in your heart. And I think that ‘spiritual’ is more God, but ‘religious’ is more what we do for God.” (Female, 15, Australia) “You don’t have to be religious to be spiritual, but you have to be spiritual to be religious. If you’re fully religious, you’ve got to be spiritual.”
(Male, 15, Canada) “Religion is basically a way of life or lifestyle, a way of living … but spirituality is by living by your principles and values.” (Male, Pune, India) “Religion is like, ‘this is what happens.’ Whereas spiritual is I think this happens.”
(Female, 17, Canada) “Religious knows a lot about his religion. Spiritual is more in control of his soul.”
(Female, 18, Syria) “Religious follows the way, the path made for us. Spirituality is what you believe in yourself.”
(Male, Malta) |
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