"I Am Spiritual but I Am Not Religious"?

It would be far too easy to jump on this and ridicule what you say but instead I will take that gentle nudge and I will listen to my inner voice. When I am speaking of religion I am not speaking of any one specific religion. There are lot of them in this world. They have a lot of different names and a lot of different beliefs. It is a mistake to believe that they are confined to churches or buildings. They are the heart and soul of a society and when you set yourself apart from all religion you in effect separate yourself from humanity. The characteristics of the belief that you describe tell me that to do have a religion. You can call the religion that you follow Spiritualism or give it some other New Age name but it is in fact a religion. The idea of spirit guides is not unique to you. There are many people that share this belief so in fact you do ascribe to a structured belief system. That is one of the definitions of religion. You are not spiritual without being religious. You are spiritual and do follow a religion. It's pretty tough to completely escape religion.

I totally agree with lilaclady here and appreciate her argumentation, this is how we can define this statement, as the inner living of ones beliefs, the inner experience and connection with a superior being or not necessary, just a connection with the universe. Religion should be that way too, but it seems that people have this urge of meddling in your lives, even if we want it or not, on the argument that they want to save your soul. No one can save your soul except for yourself. Many have forgotten that the real concept of religion is the inner experience, not the hollow pointless rituals and babbling we get everywhere. There is one thing you have to always remember for peace and harmony to be achieved: No one holds The Truth...

I agree lilaclady. I found it odd that the original poster would think they could ridicule this response, because spirituality is NOT religion. I suppose I might have to explain that by religion, I mean organized religion. Religion as man knows it IS organized religion, and it is something man came up with by himself and created. Spirituality is not something that was created by man, and as such isn't included in the list of things I avoid or think are complete nonsense.

Really? So every healer and animist in the world has consciously substituted "spiritual" for "religious;" in order to add appeal by subtracting from a secretive, broader, doctrinal faith; is that right? So the real reason that the early native Americans apologized to their pray for killing them, and thanked them for the nourishment they would soon provide, was in fact because they were concealing a surreptitious and sinister aim to inject doctrine into the first settlers, is that right? How many cultures in the world do no have at least one form of religion? Unlike our friend Chiang (and apparently you as well), I am of the understanding that spirituality usually precedes the birth of a new religion. People all over the world have invented very different deities (and numbers of deities) upon experiencing something that struck them as mystical. Before the Greeks could ever cook up a deity like Zeus, they must have seen an awesome lightning storm to ignite the idea. I am a theistic evolutionist. My debates here are for a Higher Power, not for Jesus, Jehovah, Yahweh, Zeus, Allah, Mithra, or anyone else. If invited, I would be willing to discuss what I would like to believe about the afterlife, our purpose on this earth, etc. But I hold no actual positions here, because I don't know, and acknowledge that I don't know. I believe very strongly in a Higher Power, due in part to what little scientific knowledge I have, and in part to the things I have seen and done since becoming a believer. I attend a Christian (Presbyterian) church because I like the story of Christ. I would like to believe it, and hope to one day know more about these supposed "prophecies" in the Bible that prove for sure and certain that at least some of the knowledge in those pages had to have been divinely imparted. But I am unlikely to be convinced of something like this unless I read of a prophecy that was just recently fulfilled, and right down to details such as names and locations. I would like to believe in the story of Christ, but at this time, I do not. I believe in an immortal spirit, but I don't hold a position on this because I have no hard evidence to support this belief. I believe in a Creative Intelligence, be it material or immaterial, having either no beginning, or evolving over time from some disproportionate concentration of energy in the meta-universe. I believe this Intelligence is still out there, elaborating on past evolutionary achievements to periodically produce new species and taxonomic groups, and applying old components to new uses in order to produce something new and improved without starting from scratch. I understand survival of the fittest, and know it is only logical for a better-developed organism to survive than a lesser-developed one, but I don't believe that inanimate objects are particularly inclined to perform complex experiments over and over again. Mathematicians say the amount of trials it would take to separate 554 or 556 left-handed amino acids from a mixed-handed compound and form a single protein (let alone 90 to 100 or more) numbers somewhere in the neighborhood of 1040000. The total amount of visible molecules in this universe is 1080. Yet not only has this been accomplished, but millions of times? I understand there is evidence that all modern species ultimately evolved from a common ancestor, but as you yourself already know, this doesn't always happen by way of gradual, tiny modifications. Again and again, while we see different generations sharing a majority of DNA information, we also see significant changes occurring in a single step. How many times can one person win the lottery? I believe this Intelligence is somehow aware of my presence and circumstances. I believe this Intelligence is able to communicate with me to some degree, and able (whether or not inclined) to occasionally get indirectly involved in the scenarios I face: http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1457432.aspx?p=3 (see my comments under response #22) http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1791007.aspx?p=1#1_10035473 I am not a person of blind faith. I used to be an atheist. All I'm going by is what I know, what I've experienced. My perception of "God" is vague at best. I don't know if there are many Gods, or just one. I am not a religious person; the only "doctrine" I swear by is my own. Is that self-indulgence? Am I some kind of a showoff? I think not. You recently insulted me in another thread, accusing me of avoiding reality and making excuses. Before you made this remark, all I did was ask you for clarification. But it looks like hostility comes pretty natural to you; no one attacked you here. While my recent mistake was a simple misnomer, it looks like yours is outright shallowness. Now you can try to "invent" some explanation for your remark here, or be enlightened (whether you choose to thank me for it or not). All the best to you.

Please read more carefully, I never said all. all the best urban

I don't think "mostly" qualifies either. Sure, there are bleating deacons out there who are in denial, but I don't think they outnumber the non-denominational spiritualists. Anyway, since I wouldn't expect an admission from a bleating deacon in denial, I doubt there are any statistical records out there, at least not reliable ones.

Ravenladyj have you lost your sense of humor? The last part of what I wrote was done with my tong rather firmly inserted in my cheek. Gnosisquest gave, in his response, a better explanation of spirituality than I ever could but it does come close to where I am trying to go in my life. He chose not to call it religion but it is a statement of what religion should be all about. I am a bit different than most here. I am religious but have no strong feeling about god one way or the other. I am a Buddhist living in a country that is predominately Buddhist. I go to the temple and take an active part in the ritual. I love how the ritual creates a sense of community and the feeling of belonging it gives me. Some of the monks are the most spiritual people I know and if I tried to tell them that they could separate their spiritually from their religion they would think I had lost my mind. My religion guides my spiritual life but it does not dominate it. bsclot

I think it is completely possible (and even normal) to separate spirituality from religion. Spirituality is another dimension of your personality, your soul. It is inherent in any thinking living creature. It does not have rules and it does not judge others. Religion is created by humans. It DOES have rules and it DOES judge others and therein you find many instances of hypocrisy and hypocrites by the thousands. It IS very limiting and very, how shall I say, claustrophobic...? It also introduces the concepts of good and evil and right and wrong - and those are not essences of spirituality. Spirituality encompasses a relationship and a feeling, not a list of thou shalt and thou shalt not.

Spirituality is not for the lazy people. There is a quote that goes "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak(or lazy)". Buddhist monks practice martial arts. Hermits stay away from civilization and commune with nature. You will be the very first lazy person to gain spiritual enlightenment when the time comes. :-)

Religion to me is something more generic than organized religion. Religion is a way of looking at the world and explaining it to yourself. Religion is the accumulation of ideas about God and helps us to understand the idea of God. You're absolutely right, you will not find God or your soul in a building but if you don't look to the accumulated ideas of the human species where are you going to find God? Religion is not something that can be tied down and contained in one book or even one belief system. It is our heritage, it is what makes us and shapes us. I just do not see how it is possible to be spiritual with no belief system to base that spirituality upon. From what you say you are in fact spiritual and religious.

I don't like using the term 'religion' if I'm talking about spirituality. Religion has negative connotations, when I think of religion I always think of the man-made rules and affiliations and churches and such. It is not a very freeing or forgiving notion. Spirituality on the other hand is.

Yeah, you get it. I love your comment that you can be a religion of one or one and a billion. In that simple statement you summed up everything I have been trying to say above.

Thank you. I truly believe that and, at first, I was raising my kids as Catholics but once they received their confirmation, I let it be there choice if they wished to continue as Catholics because I thought it was wrong to preach what they should believe. I do believe it is everyone's choice and learning about all belief systems is a good thing. I accept all people's belief systems, and HATE it when anyone says that theirs is the one and only true religion. Why then, are their so many? Since all say the same, and all have "proof", who do you believe? :D

Since it has been so long since the many religions have been created we don't really know what the original information imparted to people through them was. So many ideas and information have been lost, changed and forgotten over time. The idea of being spriritual, in other words connecting in your own way to God and Spirit, instead of being overly concerned about religion which is the human interpretation of these entities, is important to me. Religion has been altered in many ways by humans who are fallable.

There are an awful lot of religious ideas rattling around in your comment. It a lot harder to be spiritual and not religious than you think. You're tiying the ideas of your spirituality, such as an afterlife and an anthropomorphic God, to religion. How can you say that to you are spiritual and not religious when the core of your beliefs come directly from religion? You are in fact spiritual and religious.

To a degree, sure. My spirituality was shaped by early religious influences, but only the pieces that rang true to me stuck. So I would certainly consider myself spiritual before religious, but I would consider myself religious before agnostic or atheist!