Our take: When someone says they are spiritual but not religious, what do they practice? What do they believe? On CNN's Belief Blog, Alan Miller, director of The New York Salon , questions the motives of those who call themselves spiritual but not religious. "Being spiritual but not religious avoids having to think too hard about having to decide," he writes.
The increasingly common refrain that "I'm spiritual, but not religious," represents some of the most retrogressive aspects of contemporary society. The spiritual but not religious "movement" an inappropriate term as that would suggest some collective, organizational aspect highlights the implosion of belief that has struck at the heart of Western society.
Spiritual but not religious people are especially prevalent in the younger population in the United States, although a recent study has argued that it is not so much that people have stopped believing in God, but rather have drifted from formal institutions.
It seems that just being a part of a religious institution is nowadays associated negatively, with everything from the Religious Right to child abuse, back to the Crusades and of course with terrorism today.