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The term means that I believe deeply that God exists and cares about all life, including human beings; that "God" is a term we use to describe a universal force bigger than ourselves and vastly greater than we can imagine; that any doctrine promulgated by a particular religion is inherently self-limiting and has only partial truth; that no one has the best or only truth, and anyone who thinks so is deluding themselves and possibly others around them. Science has everything to do with it, since it is the area of human thought that most dares to grapple with the scale of the universe and our place in it. Most religions are too concerned with their own survival to face the inadequacy of their theologies. As JB Phillips said, "Your God is too small." I admire religious organizations for what they do to better the human condition -- up to the point where their theology gets in the way. As one of your guests said recently, "[Christianity] answers questions I didn't ask." And it, and others, are silent on the questions most important to me. I have fond memories of my tradition (Episcopalian) but their theological language is alienating to me. The best I can say is "I don't know;" I wish I could say more about what I know but that would not be completely honest.

I am an elder. For me, spirituality transcends religion. It has nothing to do with science, dogma or creed. It has to do with walking the path to awakening to our true identity as Spirit.

Religious means there is a person, or people who can tell me I am wrong and can kick me out for asking questions. Spiritual means I am open to ideas and possibilities of a greater life than human; of a life or lives beyond the one I and all of us live now.

My father was a minister when I was younger, so I'm a preacher's kid. Although I was an altar boy for a time in the Episcopal Church, I gradually fell away from attending services. Late in my adolescence, I went to live at The Farm, a commune in rural Tennessee that drew on many religious traditions, both eastern and western, but I washed out after nine months.

I endeavor to live in a righteous way and I sporadically make attempts to learn about spirituality. I feel fortunate to live in an age when the teachings of many traditions are available to those of us who live in industrialized countries. On the other hand, I realize that I have a lot of trouble making a place and serving a useful purpose in any particular community. Churches give me the creeps. Christianity, the religion I was raised in, is discredited by the harsh bigotry that characterizes many of its believers and the harmful policies that they get enacted into law. Christians also tend to purposefully ignore the fact that their myths draw upon older traditions, and fundamentalists insist that their book is the only valid revelation. I once figured that that Paganism might be a more openminded alternative until I got to know several uptight, rigid pagans: their prejudices and harsh judgements resembled those of the Christian fundamentalists I detest.

I've been lazy about increasing my spiritual development and seeking a spiritual home. I'm informed by a number of concepts and traditions; some that I learned early on and others that I learned later. I tend to think of 'religion' as being the theoretical and institutional structure that perpetuates a tradition or a particular version of truth. At its best, religion fosters community and serves as a focus for coordinated action; all too often, it serves as a justification for chauvinism and a locus of self-righteous hypocrisy.

I do not believe in god or gods -- that is, I do not believe in some omnipotent being or beings who created the world and who must be appeased or worshiped. However, I also have trouble with the materialist mindset that what you see is all there is.

For one thing, there are still huge gaps in our knowledge. It is possible that at some point in the future science will be able to explain everything, but we are not there yet. Besides, physics at its most advanced points is pretty much indistinguishable from mysticism; it could be that actual reality is quite different from what it appears to be to ordinary human minds at present.

For another, while intellectual reasoning is very valuable, it has its limits. Meditation, ritual, and related practices that tap into subconscious and unconscious parts of the human mind provide a level of understanding and truth that cannot be found by reasoning alone.

I consider myself to be "spiritual but not religious" because I don't feel that my spiritual beliefs fit easily into the category of any of the major religions I have explored. I don't like the idea of limiting myself to the dogma of any one specific religion because as I continue to explore, I find truth in all the religions that I encounter.

As a part of the "Millennial" generation, I have often heard similar sentiments among my peers. Personally, I believe this may have something to do with having been raised to be more open-minded and accepting of differences than previous generations. I've also noticed that those in my generation tend to resist being pinned-down or pigeon-holed and instead take pride in walking new and different paths than those who came before us.

I am a 50 y/o female physician who grew up Catholic but dropped it in my youth for many reasons. I use this term spiritual but not religious because no organized religion describes my beliefs or helps me explore a meaningful spirituality. My beliefs are informed by a combination of Buddhism, yoga, Native American and liberal christianity, as well a a smattering of other wisdom traditions. I wish there was a community that I could practice with, but find the Unitarians too intellectual, leaving the direct experience of spirit behind; the Unity folk are too non-scientific and given to fads. There are a few indiosyncratic churches scattered across the country that are both intellectually rigorous and spiritually rich, but I haven't found any near where I live.

If you experience empathy you are feeling the world of the spirit. Religion is the branding of this experience. In our time the fog of branding has eclipsed religious faith in technologicaly rich culture and made it like another thing for sale.
Also the voice of the spirit is lost intranslation when delivered by dogma. Thank God for the internet and the satillites of love that make it possible to share whitness without need to sell it. Stay tuned!

I consider myself "spiritual, but not religious". I usually take "spiritual" in the sense "concerning the breath", in the sense of an unseen force that moves things. I know, that may not be too useful, but I think a lot of human experience isn't really scientifically explainable (at least not currently), or even easy to discuss. Spirituality is one way people attempt to make sense of life, in all it's messy details.

I also tend towards, for lack of a better term, the mystical. I am much more concerned with meditation and directly experiencing reality. I'm not especially religious in that I'm not too concerned with following some religion's doctrine, and disregard teachings that are obviously nonsense. (For example, I rule out Christian fundamentalism as I just can't see how it could possibly be true).

Basically, I think that there is no easy answer, and it takes a lot of work to understand things. I try to be open to things that I don't understand. I think that automatic skepticism is just as bad as automatic belief, and it's important to keep an honestly open mind. It's also important to think clearly, and be aware of your own emotions and motivations when trying to understand spiritual ideas.

I consider myself to be spiritual, not religious. Spiritual, for me, is about the individual and what goes on in the mind as one tries to grapple with the unknown and intangible. Religion involves ritual and formal organization, and it is ultimately about how the collective agrees to address the spiritual. I am in my 50's (so I am not young), and my experience with religion has led me to be suspicious of the religious, and yet not abandon the spiritual. Science - most notably the scientific method - has given me courage to question existing religions; and to the extent that science is theoretical, I think it overlaps with the spiritual. But I can't think of any scientific finding that has influenced my position on religion.

In this age "Sprituality" and "Science" are very much connected and "Humanity" is in need of both, in fact many of our daily problems appear because we take one and ignore the other, many times we chose to live in a "duality", taking one and rejecting the other, either we deep into the Spiritual world so much that it becomes "Blind Faith" or we gravitate 100% to the material existance and we lose hopes for a better future of the Human race. Lets consider "Humanity" as a bird with two "Wings" one has to be the "Science" and the other "Spirituality", both wings and equaly need to be strong. I cordialy invite the readers to visit a small book called "The Paris Talks", talks given by "Abdul Baha" in the city of Paris in 1911.

I beleive in God. I believe God was created by humans and resides in the minds of humans. God the spark of humanity in everyone, which is just a nice comforting thought. Not one I care to study, talk about, or share with others in a religious setting. Science is vital to me - I am a geologist. Science gave us the real story of our creation, which is a nice comforting thought. Not one I care to study, talk about, or share with others in any formal setting. As I study the earth and spend time in nature I strip off the crust of modern life and explore my self. That is me being spiritual.

For me, born 1978, it's not to do with making space for sciencific explanations so much as removing the need for a religion based identity or a religion based experience of spirit. I was raised with time spent in both catholic and Protestant worship, with an atheist father and former Catholic, still with spirit but without Church, mother. Work ethic and service ideas I met seem to arise out of Protestant roots. Whilst an experience of human spirituality was characterized as intellectually bankrupt and ludicrous. My lived experience disproved this idea; I found human spirit as vital, life giving and fundemental. So I say I am spiritual. I clarify that this experience is outside religion because I don't see myself as Christian, the requirement to see Christ as the singular route to God is my lauded rationale/excuse. Morally I practise living in accordance with the core idea behind all the worlds religions - love others as yourself. Tribally I am confused, I live in a country far from my birth tribe, surrounded by people from many different and unknown tribes. I am unsure if tribal identity is a useful urge. I equate becoming religious with joining a tribe, so it becomes something I cannot do.

Thanks for asking the question.