The Problem with Being Spiritual but Not Religious

There is an increasingly popular phenomenon today of people, especially younger people, claiming to be “spiritual but not religious.” They acknowledge the existence of God or a higher power in the world, but they don’t subscribe to any specific religion, and in many cases tend to be suspicious of any type of organized religion. This attitude of being “spiritual but not religious” is taken on by many well-meaning and searching people, but the attitude is nonetheless very problematic.

The goodness found in this attitude is the acknowledgment and openness to the spiritual life. Many people rightly believe there to be more to this life than the material world we see around us. They believe in a spiritual world, and are often very open to it and desire to have a spirituality in their own lives.  

I have talked to many people who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious” and the question I always ask them is this: what spirits? They say they are spiritual, what spirits do they follow? Do they believe there to be both good and bad spirits? How do they know which spirits are good and which spirits are bad? Without a doubt, people will admit there are both good and bad spirits, but the answer to which spirits they follow and how to know the difference between good and bad spirits tends to be very vague and superficial. 

Arguably, one of the main aspects of religion is that it makes a claim and offers a framework for discerning good and bad spirits. Almost all world religions acknowledge both good and bad spirits and help people know the difference and follow the good spirits. Herein lies a fundamental problem with being “spiritual but not religious”: either the person really does have a well thought out criteria for good and bad spirits and therefore actually is religious (since a core aspect of religion is claiming what good and bad spirits are), or they don’t have much of an idea at all how to know the difference between good and bad spirits, and are therefore very susceptible to dangerous ideologies and spiritual practices.

Let us take Christianity, for example, to demonstrate this. Christianity has always acknowledged good spirits (God and angels) and bad spirits (Satan and demons) and has sought to help people understand them. St. Ignatius of Loyola, one of the spiritual masters of the Christian tradition, developed a series of rules for helping people discern God’s spirit. The Bible talks about how to know if a spirit is from God or not:

“Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God… This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit... Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. – 1 John 4: 1-8

St. Paul tells us, “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-7).

That is specific criteria that Christianity claims to be hallmarks of the spirit of God. The Bible is also very clear that religion is a good thing, as it never speaks against religion in general, but rather, distinguishes between true and false religion.  

“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” – James 1:26-27

Therefore, any Christian claiming to be spiritual (or with Jesus) but not religious is antithetical to Christianity itself. It is good that many people today want to be spiritual, however, the claim of being “spiritual but not religious” is misguided and rests on no firm foundation.