Spirituality Replacing Religion

I always ask these people online who say, "I'm not religious, but I'm VERY 'spiritual'", what exactly do they mean?

Assuming you receive any kind of a reply, it is almost always childish gibberish which develops into whining prattle about how life has been so bad to them. They've rejected the idea of God, Church, and that they "feel" the "zeitgeist ", LOL LOL or they've learned to "emote" things. lol lol Yeah, right!!!

Most have either stopped thinking, or haven't a clue as to what introspection could be. They are so completely wrapped up in themselves, as to have retreated from society and it's conventions. What's disturbing is this isn't a retreat in the sense of a St. Benedict having rejected the world and retreated from it to produce an iconic way of life for Christians. It is a form of neo-nihilism. There is nothing positive or regenerative for society or in their own life to fall back on, or to advance once having repudiated civilizaton and what it offers, just constant diversion and self-amusement and weird forms of self-abasement.

This may explain the upsurge we see in paganism and hedonistic excess which our culture thrives on and encourages. It manifests itself in the very widespread interest in witchcraft and joining cults of one kind or another. You couldn't call it ennui, but a journey to fill a vast void.

Maybe Pope Benedict's exorcist is onto something and is trying to warn not only the Church, but the entire world.

Spirituality vs. Religion:

Often enough the following cliché is heard, “Spirituality is an important part of my life but not Religion,” It sounds right but is deceptive and can be very misleading; some have left the Church to follow “spirituality.”

“Religion” is quickly taking a negative connotation, as boring man made rituals imposed upon congregations by self righteous, authoritarian, controlling, power happy men.

“Spirituality” on the other hand has a positive connotation and is developed by our personal relationship with God. From the many godly sources, we personally choose our own way of relating to God.

But, in the Catholic Church Religion and Spirituality are inseparable, because spirituality does not develop from our personal relationship with God. It develops from the Universal Terms (Catholic) that God has revealed as the means for our redemption.

Therefore Catholicism requires to accept by faith the universal teaching of the church as the bases for personal spirituality.

So, we can define the Catholic religion as “ The Relationship of Humanity with God in God’s Terms.”

Spirituality on the other hand, if not developed from the universal terms of redemption becomes the personal choice of the individual, this kind of spirituality can be defined as “ a relationship with God in terms of Man.

Hi .. it's sad to know that youngsters take pride in being part of the growing SBNR community.Perhaps, most of them had a religious upbringing, so haven't given up on God completely, but somewhere they feel, a sense of incompleteness and unhappiness.
If they had been given proper religious training, they would filled that void with love.Since, they didn't get that opportunity, they try to fill it with other things like wealth, sex, drugs and some do it with spirituality.
I think , religion needs to change with the changing times, and the priests have to come out of the churches and reach out to these estranged people, who really need god s help and guidance. So the importance of religion has actually increased and we should make the most of it :)