The Distinctiveness Of Theism, Religion, And Spirituality

All religions are inherently theistic.  That is, to even be a religion, the tenets of a worldview must feature some kind of deity--which rules out things like atheism and any kind of non-theistic ideology from the possibility of being a religion despite the idiotic statements to the contrary one might find.  Basic theism, however, just posits that an uncaused cause exists, which means that theism is not religious by default even if all religions are theistic.  Theism is the afirmative stance that a divine being, which ultimately is nothing other than an entity that has always existed and can bring other logically possible things into existence, exists, while religious theologies go further than entailing the basic conceptual nature of an uncaused cause.

Spirituality, in contrast to both theism and any religion, is the broadest of the three, having to do with an emphasis on human consciousness as the immaterial seat of experience and thought that it is.  Even an atheist could be explicitly spiritual because the issue of one's consciousness existing and being immaterial is separate from the issue of whether there is an uncaused cause or whether any specific religion is true in part or whole (or probably true).  Only someone as stupid as a naturalist lapses into hypocrisy in practicing or favoring any kind of spirituality because there is no such thing as a mind that animates the body if matter is all that exists.

The distinction between theism, religion, and spirituality is actually rather clear when a person looks to reason and the concepts of each rather than conflating them or listening to what other people say without thinking on one's own.  Fools who think that all theistic ideas are religious, that spirituality is inherently tied to religion, or that they must all have equal significance if one is valid have shaped the public awareness of each of the three when none of this is true.  Yes, there is a clear philosophical relationship between the three in that they naturally connect in some worldviews and are not contradictory among themselves whatsoever, but one does not automatically entail the others except in the way that religion hinges on theism.

For Christians, recognizing the distinctiveness of these three happens to give them what it would give amyone else: clarity about the true nature of key concepts as illuminated by reason.  Still, this distinction has the added benefit of not only bringing personal knowledge of philosophical categories, but also refuting certain popular misconceptions about theism, religion, and spirituality both inside and outside of the church.  It is thus useful in everything from personal reflection to apologetics, even if distinctions of this type are almost completely unaddressed by most visible Christian apologists (who are unsurprisingly nothing more than irrationalists who aim to persuade rather than prove and who do not acknowledge the utter epistemological and metaphysical supremacy of reason in all things).

Unfortunately, if more people, including professional apologists, understood these distinctions, plenty of asinine nonsense would be completely avoided.  One example is how the partial overlap between religion and spirituality would not be mistaken for a total one when conversing with others.  Someone who calls himself or herself "spiritual but not religious" might be honest in claiming this and any rational person, much less rational Christian, can know that this is at least possible.  Moreover, the pathetic belief that any ideology that is held to with zeal is "religious" would disappear entirely if more people were intelligent enough to not think a concept like religion encompasses more than it actually does.  Distinguishing these things is far more important than the typical Christian--who reflects the general stupidity of most people but happens to be a Christian--cares to admit.