This is something I see in magazine articles, online, hear on the radio - people talking about 'being spiritual' (but not religious) as if being sort of vaguely in touch with their emotional side without bothering with the intellectual part is somehow a GOOD thing.

So forgive me, but what, pray tell, does someone MEAN when they say they are 'spiritual'?

They see ghosts? They have 'feelings' about nature? Poetry makes them tear up? They feel better when they meditate?

So?

How is that a substitute for being 'religious'?

Isn't 'a religion' about creating bonds between people, by creating a structure where 'spirituality' can blossom - together? By giving people a place to hold onto, when the dark and sad events and emotions threaten to overcome? By establishing some sort of GOAL and meaning to all that 'spirituality'?

I don't see, myself, how 'spirituality' can exist in a vacuum, without a religious expression to it.

So just what do people MEAN, when they say they are 'spiritual'? What am I missing, because that statement just makes no sense to me at all.