sorry, excessively verbose..
The gospel of brutal nihilism preached by science, that all things will end at some point in the next ten bijillion years as the observed mechanisms of the universe grind to a halt ( last time I checked anyway) allows for complete and utter freedom from responsibility.This is a fact based on observation that a closed system subject to entropy, if left to its own devices for long enough will collapse in on itself as its force, fuel or what have you end, and logically extending this to the universal scale. I wholly agree with this summation, as it explains observed facts. Apply that to your personal life, and you can act however you want without fear of retribution, so long as you don't mind or manage to avoid the necessary consequences of contravening human society's necessary mechanisms ( which are often religion based, but thats a different story).
That out of the way, religion(from a Greek word "Religios" meaning
to bind, if I remember rightly) itself is variable in incarnation, so I'll render it to consistent facts:
1. Religion typically proscribes how to act, think, react etc
2. This can and does directly appeal to individuals who crave structure, or appreciate some other facet of the presentation of the basic set of
thou shalts etc. Examples being interest free loans , burning of your enemies, isolation from market forces of personal livestock etc etc etc.
3. Traditionally, its interpretation has been left to individuals who can be rendered infallible, often retroactively.
4. This allows those enlightened with the gospel of entropy and nihilism ( or just plain greed) to superimpose their will on others, and being able to do this from a position of infallibility allows for all sorts of silly acts, the Catholic Crusades being the oft quoted example ( I challenge you to find a verse in The Bible that says to the effect of " The gentiles shall redeem Jerusalem" It says something to quite the opposite throughout, and explicitly near the end).
5. Religion then becomes little more than a lifestyle shared to greater or lesser extents by it's adherents.
Faith on the other hand, is the firmly held belief that X is so (even when you cannot demonstrate it ), with religion providing the "and therefore I shall do this". I propose then that if awareness of Our Father Which Art In Heaven ( Hallowed be Thy Name), The 2 million Kami in and around Japan's landscape, the reincarnation of one's dead grandfather as a wizened potato or what have you, occurs to *anyone* they will act in some way, with the generation of religion (or apathy) being the mainstream reaction to some grand shared stimulae.
Religion, being often dictated by (or indeed, to) clever old men who probably don't want to do any heavy lifting must then be self propagating for where that faith (the awareness of X) is lacking or it will collapse, as it did in e.g. Egypt and Ankhnatenwhatsit's worship of the Sole Sun God (albeit replaced with the older Pantheist religion, and eventually Islam).
So according to these observations, it is my understanding that, yes you can believe in God without subscribing to a religion, but you will probably react one way or another according to your belief which, in effect becomes your own religion if its not one of the existing ones. Whether the faith or the religion holds the greater sway is a matter for debate, in western tradition spurned on by swords, red hot pokers and the founding of new nations.
Full disclosure: I aspire to John Knox-esque Puritan doctrine in following my faith in the Triune God Almighty, The Terror of Israel, with the Holy Bible as His divinely inspired word. I have yet to find anywhere therein that the I AM prevents the existence of any of the countless other spirits venerated by other religions, based on the fact that He Himself acknowledges certain specimen's existence, and frequently uses the word
detestable in describing them as groups or individually.
So aye, cake anyone?
