The words in the title here are often confused, to have the same meaning, or misunderstood, at the very least.

Having Faith, being Spiritual, and being Religious are often considered to mean the same thing. An important distinction to make is that to be religious, one must have faith. While having faith does not make one religious. Another term often used is Spiritual. Like having faith, being spiritual does not mean you are religious. A spiritual person is more likely to be religious than someone professing to believe in faith. On a sliding scale of 1 to 10, if being religious is a 10, being spiritual is probably a 7-8, and having faith is probably a 2-3. A point to remember is that being spiritual/religious does not mean that one practices one of the structured/recognized religious beliefs. Spiritual folks may be religious in their own way/beliefs.

 Wikipedia defines this distinction quite clearly:

QUOTE:

“Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is “unconditional belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of any religion.”

“Spirituality refers to the search for meaning, purpose, and connection in life. Like Faith, it can exist independently of organized religions. In the context of religion, spirituality can involve “connection to a higher power, or belief in a non-physical reality.”

UNQUOTE

To a large extent, having faith means believing explicitly in something or someone and is generally conditional on past experiences. For example, one may have faith in individuals they know/trust very well, or they may have faith in their own abilities, the reliability of air travel, driving their car, or securely using their computer/phone. It is not unconditional, or just based on someone asking them to ‘have faith in something’. It is built on ‘proven’ past experiences and can be objectively traced.

Some such experiences may result in creating a foundation of faith, which may consolidate for some, to unconditional belief in spirituality and a higher divine form, or the teachings of a religion. Beliefs developed in this manner are foundationally strong and intertwined with the individual person’s experiences based on faith. It becomes a way of life, and the subsequent religious changes are generally never questioned.

It is also important to distinguish here that one’s faith/spirituality may drive one closer to their belief in some form of a divine being, or creator of life, WITHOUT believing in any of the organized religions we see in our world. We are born into a family that practices some religion/belief system, and most of us assume the same faith/religion as a part of our upbringing. Some may drift away as they grow up, and adopt another belief or decide to stay at the Faith/Spiritual level, w/o conforming to a formal Religion.

I was researching our world’s population % distribution based on religious beliefs (however, one may define it), and came across the following data from 2023. There are 2 categories below (Unaffiliated and Other Religions) – 16.6%, different from any formal/structured world religions. Since practicing any religion requires an unconditional foundation of faith, 84.4% of the 8 billion of us start with Faith/Spirituality. In different ways, we diverge into our own individual religious beliefs. Although each divergent path to divinity is different, the end-points promote the same core values of dos/don’ts that allow us to co-exist.

This data re-affirms that however open-minded, different and forward looking we may be – most of us do need the comforting anchor of faith/religion, as we muddle through our fleeting existence of a lifetime on this blue planet.

We course through our lives on a wobbly ‘bicycle’, balancing our lives, avoiding obstacles, staying on the beaten path, and dealing with unforeseen surprises along the way. A third wheel of Faith/Spirituality/Religion would be very helpful to stabilize and provide some harmony in our lives. I believe in “to each their own way” of living their lives. There is no right or wrong judgment here.