1. Religion requires you to submit, spirituality allows you to decide what is ultimate and what you choose to honor.
It forgets that our very lives are outside of our control. It assumes autonomy and bets on the fact that there is no God who requires submission and obedience.
2. Religion operates out of fear while spirituality allows you to operate out of what feels right.
It assumes that we all have a spark of the divine and that we all choose what is best for ourselves and others. Yet, it does not take into account the reality of the universe and assumes that there is no God who will bring all people to account one day.
3. Religion tells you what is true, but spirituality lets you discover it on your own.
What if you are wrong? It puts such a high value on self that it assumes that an enlightened individual will come to good conclusions. It assumes that there really is no truth, that all is relative. This leads to men and women doing right in their own eyes. Just look at history, this doesn't work out to well.
4. Religion separates but spirituality unites.
It assumes that all religions are great buffets that you can pick and choose the parts that you like from one and another. It does not see that truth claims polarize and require decisions and sides. It assumes that there is no truth, and thus, you can create your own narrative of reality, it forgets that there can only be one narrative of there is to be order and multiple narratives that tell different stories necessarily require that some of them are false.
5. Religion makes you dependent while spirituality makes you independent.
It tells you that you can make yourself happy and at bottom you have divinity baked in. It assumes that you need no one and you alone are responsible for your future and your happiness. It tells you that you are worthy and not unworthy. The problem is that we know the truth, we are unworthy and messed up, we need our Creator to remake us. We are dependent and there is no getting around it, we cannot control the events and actions of others. We need God's help.
6. Religion assumes judgment while spirituality assumes karma.
It ignores the injustice that runs rampant in the world. It causes the people who never get what should be coming to them to leave the world happy and free. Maybe reincarnation is a sort of punishment that the evil get, but what good does that do the broken, abused, mistreated and poor. It allows countless billions of people to leave the world without justice really ever being served some day, it does not value the dignity of human life. Only a just God who will bring judgment upon the wicked at a final judgment gives value to all human life.
7. Religion makes you follow somebody else, spiritually lets you discover your own path.
It assumes that you are wise enough and smart enough to find your own way by following your heart. It assumes that you can discover your version of the truth and it will be right and good. It believes that a person is wise enough and cares enough to seeks this.
In summary: spirituality is a deadly disease that lifts man up to a place of divinity in his own mind. It believes that a human is the final arbiter of reality and that there is really no objective truth. It is relativism at bottom. It thinks that it can find its own way, and does not see that there can only be one Truth. It cannot see that Truth became man and revealed Himself to us. It cannot see that the Truth said that He is the only path to God, for He is not only the Truth, but He is the Way and the Life.
John 14:6
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
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