Atheist, and I pretty much agree with Unauthorized Cinnamon; it’s context ( and intent ) that makes the words religious or not.
I also agree with the people who say that “spiritual” is often a dishonest or cowardly way of saying “religious”. And IMHO, I find spirituality/spiritual to be used more consistently as a religious term than either “spirit” or “soul”. Sometimes I do hear it used as a synonym for “emotionally moving” though.
I’m an atheist, but I have no real issue with either word. To me they are basically metaphors for the part of us that tries to rise above the ugly realities of our existence. Part of me recognizes and creates beauty, loves others, and enjoys life. Even if those things aren’t much more than what we’ve been programed to do by evolution; they are certainly what’s best in all of us. So what if we call it by some hokey name?
Gah, just typed a long post and lost it… I’ll try again.
I’m agnostic, somewhere in the sense that I don’t know or care if god or gods exist, and don’t think that those possible gods care about us/the universe in the sense of a direct consciousness of some sort being attributed to them. I’m against (most) organized religion with a fervor that borders on bigotry, but I don’t think you can say that spiritual always equals religious. Certainly, most people use spiritual as a sort of euphemism for religious, but it’s not always the case. I find that I would describe myself as vaguely spiritual, in the sense that I somewhat believe in a hollistic interconnectedness of things, and a kind of karmic balance. Now, I don’t actually believe that karma exists in a 1:1 ratio of good to bad, nor do I believe that if you’re a dick bad things will happen to you. So maybe karma isn’t exactly a good word to describe how I feel, but it’s the best descriptor I have at this point. Maybe this isn’t exactly the answer this thread was looking for, so I won’t really try to outline my views further, but it sort of got my hackles up to have Unauthorized Cinnamon, among others, equating people who say they are spiritual with always meaning they are religious, or haven’t put in the time to think about what they actually believe, and by default worship crystals and Shirley MacLaine.
So short answer, I find the word “spiritual” somewhat loaded and often associated with religion, but it depends on the context. Soul is somewhere along the same lines, but not as powerfully associated with religion as the word sin is for some reason.
I read in a Carl Sagan book the idea that all things are made of atoms, including the Earth, people, my brain, and all my thoughts and emotions and memories and personality. It’s all just the movement of atoms. In this way, since my whole idea of self is made of the same stuff as the universe, I am not separate from the universe but a part of it, and you could think of sentience as the universe’s way of pondering itself.
I think it’s a beautiful idea. It’s not really a scientific idea, since it doesn’t really explain anything, but it’s not really a religious idea since it is based on science. So I call it a spiritual idea, the way that I personally interpret my own experience while still basing it on reality.
So yeah, spirituality can be just a lame synonym for religious, but when I think of what is “religious”, I picture a mainstream organized set of rules and beliefs. Spirituality is unique to each individual.
As for spirits and souls, I tend to think of them more as generic fantasy concepts, like magic. They certainly can be used in a religious context, but they work just as well in a fantasy world. When a Dementor sucks out a wizard’s soul, I understand what that means even if I don’t follow any religion, and I know that when they talk of the evil spirit Sauron, he’s not any sort of religious figure.
I can think of several possibilities here, all of which I have seen used:
It can be used in the strictly religious sense, with a particular meaning tied to a particular dogmatic religion.
“Spiritual” can be used in the mystical sense without being tied to any particular religion (i.e. new age, earth wisdom, metaphysics, etc.).
It can be used in a secular and/or moral sense - nurturing your spiritual side means having mind-body awareness, working on personal growth, doing good works, secular buddhism, Ken Wilber, philosophy, secular humanism, etc.
It can have a scientific metaphysical meaning for those who believe that the world has some sort of metaphysical reality to it, but that that reality is just another level like any other and can be investigated scientifically - the only reason it seems magical is because we haven’t investigated it fully. Or that consciousness is somehow the basis of or can scientifically influence reality by some quantum mechanical means.
It can be used in a fictional fantasy environment in which case it’s part of the way the universe works but is not always tied to a religious institution.
To me, and in the Netherlands in general, the word “spiritual” is used by woo-woo women describing themselves. It is a useful code word, because it allows me to describe them with a term they find respectful, while to me and to those who think like me it means “Silly, cristal pyramid buying, astrology-crazy, fuzzy-minded twit.”. My mom calls herself spiritual.
Spirit, to me, means “spook”, in the hauted house sense.
I call religious folk, of any denomination, “gelovig” which literally translates as " believing". Over here, they call themselves that too. To me that’s a neutral term.
I do use the word soul. I’m not sure if a soul really exists, but it is a useful concept for stories, myths, thinking about consciousness, and all other sorts of psychological metafores and narratives. And I like to think about all those things.
Athiest. I think of both as definitely religious.
I’m agnostic, and I find them both religious. I do associate “spiritual” as sometimes belonging to those “I’m spiritual but not into organized religion” people.
“Spirit” to me sometimes seems contextual, i.e. “spirit of the law”. When I use the word, or when I hear it, I swap it for the word “essence” and still get the same meaning that I’m going for. If someone talks about a spirit, I ask if they mean “essence”, just for clarification’s sake.
Theist here, the term spirit to me refers to the eternal, as opposed to worldly, so it’s not necessarily a religious term and can be used semi-correctly (IMHO) in a context that does not acknowledge God. Using the word does hint at a eternal, mostly hidden ‘world’.
Soul would be easier to hear from a person who only acknowledges the physical world, I would take that to conscientious or self awareness, the thing that makes humans more then the sum total of their biological parts.
Mr. Toothbrush, meet Mr. Cortisone.
I’m a spiritual atheist with a soul. And no, I don’t consider it cowardly to say that. My soul is just a function of my mind which is just a function of my mortal brain. Tending to it is a spiritual act.
Atheist, here. It’s the context that matters, not the words themselves.
And I’ve been known to say “Dammit!” on occasion. I consider it a more “adult” curse word than scatalogical or sexual expletives.
It’s common stateside, too. They’re cultural phrases that are pretty much devoid of any real religious meaning.
As for the OP, I don’t consider either necessarily religious though soul has more of an overtone to it than spirit does.