100 Spiritual But Not Religious

And who are the religious but not spiritual?

Oct 07, 2025

If you’ve been around even half as long as I have, you’ve likely heard the phrase “spiritual but not religious”.

For most of my life, I identified as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR).

Now this can represent a wide melange of personal, spiritual compositions. But I’ll describe what it meant for me when I identified as as SBNR, which was for most of my adult life.

What it meant to be spiritual but not religious

It meant, I believed in a grand creator. One being that created earth, humans and all the creatures that occupied the planet, seas and heavens.

I wasn’t sure if it was that same creator was responsible for the galaxy. This grand creator goes by many different names by many different people groups.

Some referred to this “grand creator” as god. Others the universe, some called it Allah, some buddha, a cosmic force of space, raw energy. I wasn’t particularly convicted or dogmatic about how individuals chose to refer to this grand creator.

As a “spiritual but not religious” being of flesh, I didn’t believe in hell and heaven, literally.

I believed good humans would be remembered well after they died and evil humans would be remembered as such after they died, that is if they (the evil and mediocre) were remembered at all.

But essentially, I believed, we are born, we live, we die and to dust and dirt we decay and become.

I believed in science and technology as separate frameworks of evaluation from things religion and spirituality.

Being spiritual meant that if I do good things and treat others well, good things will happen to me and good people will be attracted into my space.

Likewise, if I did bad things and was bad to people, eventually there would be the consequences of these behaviors to deal with at some point. Karma.

It means, I volunteered my time for the benefit and in service to others, but I’d do it in a way that the people around me knew I was doing these things.

It means I supported and donated to nonprofit organizations, but I did in a way that people around me knew I was doing these things.

It means I was kind to the poor and downtrodden, but even more so when others were around me to see me being kind.

So, from the outside looking in and in my social media timelines and calendar of events, you might very much mistaken my digital footprint for that of a Christian.

In many ways, I did the types of things Christians were known for doing. Afterall, my parents raised my sisters and I as Christian and I turned out OK, so I want to do the same types of things for my children.

In those days, I didn’t go to Church often, but I did occasionally. Another thing that my parents also did…go to church occasionally. My parents each worked multiple jobs most of their younger years to make sure my siblings and I went to Catholic schools and learned the rituals and values that came with that religion.

As an individual that subscribed to “spiritual but not religious” I didn’t have an opinion about sin and sinners. As long as their sins did not personally affect me, to each their own.

Taking it a step further, sin as I understood it in those days, was really a subjective thing. If it made you feel bad, then it’s a sin. If it didn’t make you feel bad and it didn’t directly hurt anyone then it’s ok.

Religious Baggage

The most satisfying part about my SBNR designation is that I didn’t have to affiliate with any of these man made social constructs associated with religion.

Especially, in a time when scandals from prominent religious figures and institutions would be featured on the nightly news regularly.

Being a self-identified SBNR person, I could do yoga, meditate using different types of mantras.

I could visit psychics for readings.

Demons and the devil didn’t really exist. Not in the literal or spiritual sense. If you believed in the stuff, then maybe it existed for you, but if you don’t believe in the stuff (i.e. voodoo et.al.) then it couldn’t phase you.

If I had a plan and that plan was failing, it’s because I missed something and needed to review, tweak, update it and try again.

When I was winning in life it was because I was smarter, faster, stronger or wiser than the next guy.

When I was failing in life it was because I was not as smart, fast, strong, disciplined or as wise as the next guy. In either season my situation and status was always a result of my efforts (or lack thereof).

Being spiritual meant that I knew something that most people around me didn’t know (aka pride or foolish wisdom). In my case, that was usually around technology. I’ve been technically minded for most of my life. I worked in the tech field most of adult life. As a result these combinations of things, my work and interests often availed insights to me that were not so obvious to many around me. This happenstance of circumstances and situations, sort of reinforced by my SBNR beliefs. I win because I am better. I lost because they were better.

As an ardent subscriber to the SBNR demographic, I can pick and choose traditions and learnings from different cultures and religions that fit into my life in a neat way.

Meditation techniques, martial arts, yoga, vision boards, and so on, I can pick and choose what I want to adopt into my custom created belief system.

My ideas around sex were particularly important. As long as it was between consenting adults, that was pretty much all that mattered. Having it (sex) out of marriage, casually…no problem. I had some rules you know. I never knowingly got involved with married women. I never got involved in sex when the other person was more drunk or inebriated than I was. Apart from these two things and maybe one or two other less significant considerations, sex was fair game and it was not sinful.

My idea around drugs was that, if you can handle it and do it without wrecking your life, go for it. For me, my drugs of choice were acid, mushrooms and LSD. But I’ve done cocaine and pot too.

I didn’t consider nicotine, coffee and alcohol to be drugs.

So this wasn’t everything around my SBNR beliefs system, but should be enough to give you an idea of what being SBNR meant to me. For many people that self identify as SBNR it’s a variation of these belief systems, whether they admit it or not.

As an SBNR we typically don’t identify with being agnostic or atheist, we believe there is a grand greater power that was the cause for everything. But that creator’s magnanimity, the scope of their sovereignty and jurisdiction may vary from person to person.

Now, as you’ve probably figured by now, there was no rationality behind the systems of beliefs I personally held. They essentially an amalgamation of different ideas I thought sounded good or fit into the life that I wanted for myself and how I wanted to live that life. Me, me, I and more me, was the central theme of my personal philosophy.

You might be thinking, OK Shashue, I understand what you mean by being Spiritual But Not Religious, but what do you have to say about the “Religious But Not Spiritual” (RBNS) group of people?

Who are they?

What do they believe?

How can you identify them? What are their outward facing markers?

Religious But Not Spiritual (RBNS)

Unlike the SBNR demographic, this lot does not claim the label or identity of RBNS. In fact they might be offended if you assumed out loud they were RBNS.

The RBNS lot often self-identify as Christian. They do Christian things. They observe Christian Holidays. Many go to Church regularly.

They are familiar with the popular Bible narratives at a high level. For instance, they know about the tale of David and Goliath. They know Moses rescued the Jews from Egypt. They know story about the virgin birth of Jesus and His mother Mary. They know the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Most of this category likely grew up in a home that maintained Christian values. Either their parents were devout Christians or their grandparents. Depending on individual circumstances, they might even know the literal text of the bible by chapter and verse and can cite them back spontaneously with instant recall from memory.

This lot believes these Christian values were used by their parents and they turned out OK so they too want to continue these traditions with their own children with the hope and expectation that their children will turn out OK.

Looking from the outside in, this lot might look exactly the same as a true Christian follower of Christ Jesus.

Usually the only difference between the RBNS lot and the Christian lot is that they don’t have a personal relationship with God.

They often don’t understand or are able to explain the trinity.

Because they don’t have a personal relationship with God, they don’t recognize His voice and His works in their lives.

They don’t know the sound of the voice of their shepherd.

The holy spirit is not at all present in their heart or if it is, it holds a very small space that is rarely examined and obeyed.

If you were to look on the social media timelines of the RBNS lot you would find that they did volunteer type things on Thanksgiving weekend with their families.

You would see that they often post bible passages.

You would see that they donate to various charities and nonprofits.

They may post a selfie or two with their pastor holding or displaying their fingers with the peace or heart sign.

But you would also see them at a Beyonce concert with their teenage daughters.

You might also catch them jamming loudly to Jay Z or Tupac in their car stereo waiting at the red light in the lane next to yours.

You might find them posting quotes of the day for their Zodiac signs.

Or visiting a famous psychic while on vacation that was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Some that fall into this lot could resemble the markings of a Christian so much that they might even be able to pass a formal reading comprehension exam of the Bible with flying colors.

What makes this lot Religious but Not Christian is that they don’t have a personal relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

This lot has a spiritual void in their lives. Once all the notifications, distractions of life lessen around them they notice an increasingly louder spiritual void growing in their lives.

Some of them are confused about this spiritual void. They seek to have it filled because it’s a human necessity. And my dear friends, this is usually where the enemy springs its trap.

What do they fill this spiritual void with?

Do they set out and seek the Holy Spirit of our God of Moses, Abraham and Jacob?

Or do they seek to supplement their “Christianity” with the elements of one of the many demonic spiritual systems that exist in our culture and society in these modern times.

Or do they stray away altogether from Christianity and adopt an entirely different, seemingly more spiritual religion?

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is particularly interested in this demographic. He loves them as He loves all of His children, but the system we live in has been modified over generations to separate their spirituality from their religion and it worked. God wants to reconnect with these lost children of His. He wants to establish a personal relationship with each of them.

God: They are victims of the well calculated and expertly deployed system of deception and distractions.

Most of them don’t even know the path they walk and where it will take them in the eternal afterlife.

They are about to surrender their eternal souls to an enemy that has already been defeated.

Me: How can we stop them from going through with this?

So many call themselves Christians and think they will be with me and my father in the end and eternally, but far from the narrow path to my father and I they are.

«having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.»
2 Timothy 3:5-7 ESV

These are the points of the conversation I am having in the spirit with my Lord and Savior.

This is me begging God for a specific assignment

Me: Lord, how can you use me to help save them? Guide me and put me at work to this end.

«Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
And the LORD said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking.
Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”»
Genesis 18:24-28 ESV

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