I'm currently taking a graduate course entitled "Work, Identity and Adult Development" and we are studying Erik Erickson's Life Cycle Theory of development. The question last night was if we agreed with Erickson's inclusion of spirituality in his work. I answered, "Yes, it's impossible to exclude spirituality when addressing human beings and their development." Something to that effect. Then another classmate commented that referenciing spirituality would not apply to an atheist because they don't believe in God. I retorted that all beings are spiritual whether or not they believe in God. Which brought us to the question of the difference between religion and spirituality. Of course in my view spirituality transcends religion in its freeness of expression, just as the spirit transcends the flesh. Religion represents the material, concrete, finite. Spirituality represents that which is fluid, malleable and infinite. Religion is governed by an organize institution of biblical or other religious doctrine. While spirituality transcends the box of the institutional doctrine and is all inclusive and quite forgiving of perceived sins because it is understood that we are all at different levels of development.
Is not an atheist spiritual, as in being a spirit being, which we all are? Does our belief or disbelief in God determine whether we are spirit beings? And does spiritual necessarily mean that you are "good"? Actually, Webster's definition of spiritual is "of the spirit or soul; not material; possessing the nature of spirit; incorporeal; immaterial.
I think it is really interesting and quite alarming that most people connect being spiritual with something "positive", when it actually it is simply the act of being a spirit.
