Religiosity Vs. Spirituality

I used to think that religiosity and spirituality went hand in hand. While I did not necessarily think they were synonymous with each other, I did believe they were tied to one another. However, I've been seeing trends that tell me otherwise. At least, that tell me that other people do not believe that religiosity and spiritually are tied together. Both anecdotally and empirically it seems that many people believe that you can be religious without be spiritual and spiritual without being religious, and for many people spirituality is more appealing than religiosity. I think it is because people see many appealing things in a variety of religions, so rather than choosing one, they choose none, or rather all. Bits and pieces of each it seems like. While that might not be religion according to some people, it seems like religion to me. However, not everyone does that. I think more and more people, at least those my age that I have the most interaction with, are turning away from religion more and more and doing their own thing, and calling it spirituality. I don't mean to insult them or make it sound unfounded, it is just that I do not understand what they are doing that is so "spiritual". They are just separating out religious practices. Instead of following a strict religion (strict in the sense that it is layed out and formatted, not that you must obey certain rules) they choose not to follow any religion. I find it fascinating and a bit confusing at times. On one hand I can see how you can be religious without being spiritual; many people go through the motions of a religion but deep down don't "feel" it or don't really care about it that much, but it is something they have always done and continue to do. There are other examples, but that seems like a recurring one. However, it is harder for me to see how you can be spiritual without some kind of religion. What do you do to express your spirituality? What do you do that is so spiritual anyway? While I do not understand, it is a definite trend.

I have been looking at data for my project (at the same time both mind-numbing and thrilling) and so many people claim to have a high level of spirituality, but less people have a high level of religiosity. And, (and mind you this is one of the few statistics I will probably share until my project is completed and even then I don't know if I want to post them up here) it appears as though higher levels of religiosity affect one's sexual practices and attitudes, but spirituality does not have the same effect. In fact, spirituality does not seem to play a role at all in one's sexual practices and attitudes. That is so fascinating to me. There are so many reasons that I can speculate for that, and so many directions to go with this one area. Is it due to religious teachings and doctrine? Or something else? I have no idea, but I think cross-referencing with some of my other data might provide some insight. I hope so anyway. Otherwise I will just have some very interesting speculation in my results section. Don't worry though; I have plenty of solid data to talk about as well.

The more I work on my project, the more I love what I am doing. It is stressful and hard and often confusing and I have to stretch my mind and learn a lot of new things since I decided not to major in psychology but somehow end up doing it without having very much background, but it is thrilling and fascinating and I wish I could just do more. I would love to do this on a larger scale, which I may have mentioned before. Plus, I feel like I'm doing something important, and meaningful. That's important to me. I want to be able to do something with my life that I like, but also that's important. At least important to me. With my project, I feel like I'm doing that. My professors are even encouraging me to publish-not only is it flattering, I feel like I can do it, like I should do it. That might give me just what I need to be able to do this more extensively in the future. And of course, it might help me get in to graduate school-it won't be published by then obviously, but just the fact that it could be in the process definitely says something. Speaking of grad school, I take the GRE tomorrow morning so everyone should wish me good luck!


You've got no faith in Johnny, have you, Julia? His little dream may fall flat, you think. Well, so it may, what if it should? There'll be another. Oh, I've got all the faith in the world in Johnny. Whatever he does is all right with me. If he wants to dream for a while, he can dream for a while, and if he wants to come back and sell peanuts, oh, how I'll believe in those peanuts!