Faith vs Religion

Po Lin Nunnery, Hong Kong; September 2007

"Faith" is one's belief and trust in/towards a certain thing.

Whilst "religion" is a set of personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction;

or

what we both refer to as a subset of faith.

or

in a variety of cases; lies 'in between'.

There can be religion without faith. Not everyone has 'faith' in the religion they profess to believe in. In fact, in some cases, they are just 'born into the religion' i.e. by default; they go through the many motions of religious rituals without even understanding its true meaning and significance. They 'believe' in God, because they are brought up with that sense of belief. In such cases, it amounts to religion by default and not religion by choice.

Furthermore, although the word "faith" is commonly reserved to describe one's belief in religion, I (We) believe, that it encompasses a wider spectrum of things. "Faith" is often used interchangeably with words like "believe", "hope"... and as such, covers a wider variety of things which are not necessarily linked to any religious ethos.

Do let me know if you beg to differ. We would like to hear from you.

What's your equation?

Religion = Faith

or

Faith = Religion

or

Religion x Faith

or

Faith x Religion

-LV-

______

Note:
The above were exerpts from the conversation I had with Mel the other day.
Re: Her debate with a friend about faith vs religion.