"Spiritual but not religious"

[TJ in Oregon]

I think it was TJ who said that he once described himself as "religious but not spiritual". I have since borrowed that term.

I think that was Nix, Xahar, but yeah it's a good term. The aspects of religion I find most harmful are the "spiritual" ones, really - BRTD's belief in magical faith healing springs to mind. The sense of community that one finds with organised religion, while it doesn't appeal to me personally, is far more valuable to society IMO.

It was me who said that because I did (in the past tense) describe myself that way years ago. I have since "evolved" to being full-fledged religious and spiritual.

When I identified as such it was in part a certain aversion to the word spiritual for its new-ageieness, in part tongue-in-cheek haranguing of what I considered to be an absurdity: "spiritual but not religious", and part an accurate description of my moralistic but not especially God-centered lifestyle and worldview at the time. When I was younger, I don't think my going to Mass was necessarily as much more important to me than watching the Cleveland Browns game afterward as it should have been. I never went as far as to dismiss God's existence or something of that sort. I did pray but only in the context of understanding that I was supposed to, not because I really desired a personal relationship with God or anything of that sort. My teenage rebellion was to some extent a rebellion against the rebellion and while I retain certain aspects of that today, I've come to realize that the point of Christianity really is following the person of Jesus Christ, not the institutions themselves, but that the institutions are necessary mechanisms for doing so.

In short, I was a bit immature back in the day. I'd like to sit here and type a wonderful juxtaposition about how greatly improved I am now that I sincerely found Jesus and all that, but it's a cliche we say to make ourselves feel oh-so-superior to our former selves, but I'll spare you all the pain

[they don't love you like i love you]

I think it was TJ who said that he once described himself as "religious but not spiritual". I have since borrowed that term.

I think that was Nix, Xahar, but yeah it's a good term. The aspects of religion I find most harmful are the "spiritual" ones, really - BRTD's belief in magical faith healing springs to mind. The sense of community that one finds with organised religion, while it doesn't appeal to me personally, is far more valuable to society IMO.

It was me who said that because I did (in the past tense) describe myself that way years ago. I have since "evolved" to being full-fledged religious and spiritual.

I've used the "religious but not spiritual" coinage, too, and I continue to employ it when I'm drawn into discussions of the subject. I attend church occasionally and Catholicism remains an important part of my identity and continues to shape how I interpret the world whether I want it to or not, but I have no use for metaphysics or spirituality.

See this just puzzles me. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly the factor is that makes the difference to this being the case or not being the case to ex-Catholics since this most certainly is not true for almost all I know. I know some might use the excuse in regards to people at my church that they actually converted to something else instead of just lapsing into non-practice...but then you have my atheist friends in the scene. Whatever it is I really can't put my finger on it.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

There is something out there that created us. And there is some form of us that survives death. Premonitions in our dreams draws me to that conclusion. Whether it is incarnation through the return of Christ or reincarnation is debatable.