I have been reading recently a lot about how young generation in the US is losing faith. These articles then cite studies from Pew research about how people affiliate to religions. I take an issue with this data analysis that is used to show that if you don't affiliate with any religion, you have no faith. I object, My Lord. Faith and religion are two completely different concepts. They do overlap but they are not one and the same. I think this might be an issue of organized religion as against non-organized faith systems. I grew up in India and being a Hindu requires pretty much nothing of your time. I am a Hindu and it has nothing to do with whether I attend temple or perform rituals or call someone my Savior. For me, being raised a Hindu is about learning to live life in a certain way. As many say, Hinduism is a way of life. But I digress.

I am a person of faith and I am very happy to call myself a person of faith. My faith has helped me through difficult times and even in my everyday life, praying is important to me. But I don't much care about the religion and the litany of rituals and "ought to be"s that come along with it. I have always questioned man-made traditions. If you tell me, I can or can't do this because of religious reason; I need you to give me a rational explanation and then I will brood and think over it to see whether I agree. But I don't care for pulling "religion" to define and discuss everything.

I believe faith is divine and religion is man made. As a student of Public Administration, I see religion as a fantastic case of bureaucracy where hierarchy and rules are set in place to keep the organizations working. Whatever you call, God/Lord/Divine power doesn't need an organization to do his bidding. I don't care for extravagant festivals and the copious amounts of money spent on these festivals in the name of faith. But I have my faith. As I would joke around about my faith "It's between me and God, mutually consenting adults" and it's true. What connection I have with my God is completely personal and very intimate. It's hard to explain or discuss or argue about. My faith has always been source of energy for me. The conscious feeling of the divine, is a life force for me. The philosophy is must for me. But again, I do not care for religion. 

I am sure there are many people like me who have strong sense of faith and divine but do not affiliate with any religion. I would say, may be we are losing religion. And after a dismal organizational performance for about 2000 years, it's rational to do so. But religions may come and go, divine still remains. As one of the characters from a novel I read few years ago says, " I don't know any religion. All I know is my God".