What is the biggest difference between faith and religion? This was the question answered by Iranian-American author and religious studies scholar Reza Aslan, 44, when he appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show "SuperSoul Sunday."
Throughout the years, Aslan has been studying all of the world's religions, The Huffington Post reported. He said he eventually realised that all religions say the same thing, although using different languages, metaphors, and symbols to do so.
The only problem, according to Aslan, is that people often confuse the path of religion for the destination, and they mistakenly assume that faith and religion are the same thing.
"Religion is merely the language that you can use to express what is fundamentally inexpressible," he explained. "Faith is personal and mysterious and individualistic and inexpressible and indefinable. Religion is merely the language that you can use to express what is fundamentally inexpressible, to define what is undefinable."
Aslan then said that people need not subscribe to a particular religion if they have strong faith. "In a sense, for me, the language that you choose is not that important," Aslan said. "It's what you are expressing that actually matters."
In another interview, this time with the Los Angeles Times, Aslan said religion is more about a person's beliefs rather than his identity.
"People who are religious are probably unwilling to recognize how much of what they believe is rooted in who they actually are and not the teachings of their religion. We think people derive their values from their scriptures. But it's more often the case that people insert their values into their scripture," he said.
He was asked how his idea can be applied to religious extremists.
Aslan said most of these extremists already "possess an either anti-establishment [view] or are prone to violent tendencies."
He cited a report that says 80 percent of Europeans who join the Islamic State in Syria have a criminal record. "But when someone says they are acting violently in the name of Islam, that ... negates any other contributing factor that could be involved. We don't really care about his drug addiction or his history of violent tendencies or his arrest record," he said.
