Dialogo 7.2: Spirituality, Religion, Irreligion, and Society today

Some people may see the term “spiritual but not religious” as indecisive and devoid of substance. Others embrace it as an accurate way to describe themselves. What is beyond dispute, however, is that a growing share of people seeks lesser to the aids provided by religions in building their daily lives, while the majority still entrust their life choices, families, duties, or even health to the grasp of the leaders and their dogma, regardless of the conflict raised with reason, social rules, or personal desires. Spiritual but not religious (SBNR), also known as Spiritual but notafiliated (SBNA), is a popular phrase and used to self-identify a life stance of irreligious spirituality, with no regard for organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Historically, the words and spiritual have been used synonymously to describe all the various aspects of the concept of religion, but in contemporary usage spirituality has often become associated with the interior life of the individual, placing an emphasis upon the well-being of the mind-body-spirit, while religion refers to organizational or communal dimensions. To the scholars that contest the terms/concepts 'religion', 'spiritual but not religious', or 'non-religious a clear definition and explanation is required from those that define themselves in those ways. Either considering religiousness as a spiritualism builder or wrecker, envisioning the religion indestructibly linked to spirituality or on the contrary more than diverse - all of those and much more, we need to define the paths we choose to live in so that all those who are of different opinion know ours as a statement. Describing yourself either as a observant, a spiritual practitioner, a believer without specific affiliation, dependent to a group identification or deinstitutionalized worshiper, atheist, agnostic, chaplain or reverend, free thinker or self developer, or non of the above - you are summoned to state your position in the actual human society for a fair and objective recognition along with the What drove you to switch your living from atheism to religiousness, from being a follower to become a spiritual developer, from an areligious person to a nonbeliever or atheist, from serving a certain community to preaching another one? What made you drift among the vast variety of religions until giving them all up to a nonreligious or a spiritual person? All those motifs should be displayed and are worth to be known. People’s highest values and meaning in life are not necessarily tied to belief in God, but they are important andworthy of our investigation and our respect. Our Society and the times we've arrived, they are a-changin'. As more and more people have abandoned organized religion or have difficulty with a belief in a deity (or deities), we all need to take a very close look at ourselves forcing leaders to recognize their own biases and blind spots that made people drift away or renounce paths.