When we were children we were asked what came first, the chicken or the egg? If we were to base our answer on the creation story in the Bible, we would answer Chicken. But if we were to base our answer on our experience raising chickens, our answer would be Egg.
The same can be said of the answer to the question: Which came first, Religion or Spirituality?
In terms of our experience with religious books and discussions, religion came first. It is only now that more and more people talk about spirituality and write about it. In terms of the origin of the reality behind those words or in terms of the object of our understanding, spirituality came first. The spirit was there before any religion existed. God was there before there was anyone to worship him.
We can even say that spirituality is a branch of religion. For many centuries people professed religion. Some of them fiercely opposed other religions of their own. Christians for many centuries opposed paganism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and every other religion. This has also happened with paganism, Islam, and the rest with respect to other religions. They also opposed other religions.
But more and more people find that the mother religion cannot answer their deepest longing for a better life experience. So they turned to something deeper and better than religion. They found this in spirituality.
Because spirituality is in a sense a branch of religion, there is bound to be some similarity between them, just like the similarity between the chicken and the egg.
First, they both believe in a higher power of some kind.. Religion believes in God the Father, or Jesus, or Allah, or Brahman, or Tao. Spirituality also believes in this God or can conceive of him as a universal or primary energy. They both believe that such a being possesses a higher and greater power than we have.
Second, both religion and spirituality want to have a relationship with this higher power.. Although the nature of the relationship is different in religion than in spirituality, the desire for this relationship is there. Religion connects with this higher power with fear and trembling. Spirituality connects with this higher power with love and care.
Third, both religion and spirituality have rituals and practices. that deepen their own religiosity or spirituality. Religion usually has sacred rites or sacraments. Spirituality has meditation or yoga sessions.
Fourth, they both have respect for the sacred, the otherworldly. This is not just respect for God. This is respect for reality that is beyond our senses and reason. When religion takes this respect to the extreme, it becomes superstition. When spirituality takes this respect to the extreme, it becomes religious spirituality.
Fifth, they are both afraid of failure.. In religion, this failure is punished by hellfire or repetition of existence or some other worse fate. In spirituality, this failure is the inability to realize one’s true worth or worth and the fate of a meaningless life. Hell, repetition of existence, non-existence, meaninglessness are forms of punishment for failure, whether in religion or spirituality.
