Spiritualism and Religion

Spiritualism. You know the type.

"I believe in God but I don't believe in any organized religion."

By which they mean: I've chosen all the warmFuzzyHappy parts about religion and keep away from the oppressiveRegulatedScary bits.

 This is nonsense and worse than nonsense. Nobody believes in a God without the context of religion because that's how we learned about God in the first place. We read about Him. We saw the movie. The choice of the spiritualist isn't the choice of a genuine religious, it's the choice of the protester (not to say 'protestant'), the half-committed, the revisionist. It's a person who refuses to accept the discipline and instruction of an organized religion while stubbornly claiming that his happy-blanket is just as good or better. That may be a comfort to the individual, but it offers nothing to the human condition.

And the Smilin' Atheist says that if you aren't offering something to the human condition, then you aren't offering anything at all. Mysticism goes nowhere. Monasticism is the epitome of self-indulgence. "Get on up-a", to quote the sage, "get on the scene."

True, spiritualism doesn't necessarily imply quietism, but that's the direction in which it tends. As for me, give me that old-time religion. Gods and priests and rituals and rules ... I get that. I understand that, where it comes from, where it goes, and where it doesn't go. When you make up your own rules nobody gets to judge you; it keeps you safe, but it also checks you out from the human condition, which is fundamentally social. Man is a political animal, as a former rock star says, and only the idiot pretends he is not part of the polis. If you *are* going to drop out, at least do so to form a new society. That's what the Protestants did, and they get props for that at least.

The spiritualist, though, offers nothing, asks for nothing, abides by nothing, and yet claims to have something. What is it, you ask. It's personal, comes the reply. Oh. Well. Off you go then. The Smilin' Atheist sez: only religions have belief; spiritualists have make-believe. It's all nonsense, but there are grades of nonsense, ain't there?