Forest Grace (pen name) is a full-time internist (Stephen E. Ling, MD) in northern California, who has a hobby in religion. In his view, every religion has two facets: religiosity and spirituality.
1. Religiosity deals with doctrines of conduct that can cover a complicated list of issues ranging from how to pray, to whether to circumcise, to whether to baptize, to what foods not to eat, and to what to do at what time of the day, on which day of the week, or during which festival of the year. These doctrines can differ tremendously from religion to religion, and such differences have been the source of conflicts throughout human history. Therefore, religiosity has the potential to brew cultural divisiveness.
2. Unlike religiosity, which must cope with a list of issues, spirituality takes on just one: How can a person find meaningfulness in his/her daily activities through the art of awareness and attitudes? Interestingly, though expressed differently from religion to religion (mainly because of cultural and language differences), this art is universal across religions, which is succinctly summarized in the Rig Veda some three thousand years ago: “Truth is one; sages call it by various names.” It seems that people from all corners of the world share the same spiritual understanding about what constitutes a meaningful life. For that reason, spirituality can potentially foster cultural harmony.