Seeking spirituality and finding my religion

There's a spectrum in spirituality -- from Atheist to Agnostic; from Deist to Theist. People define spirituality and religion in different ways. For many, a deity must be involved, and there are degrees of religiosity -- from casual acceptance of a general theology (e.g. identifying as "Christian" but without attachment to one of the three main branches) to steadfast adherence to a specific dogma or denomination. I've written a few posts here that touch on religion: "Death - the dreaded D word", " You never know what you might find in the Bible", and "Identity." If you read those you will likely get some insight into my beliefs (or lack thereof) on such concepts as god/God, science and the supernatural.

I am among those who believe that a deity is not required for someone to be spiritual or even religious. Sometimes in trying to explain my beliefs to others I get bogged down with semantics. How do we define spirituality? How do we define religion? My take on it (and it's my blog so that's what counts here) is that we can all decide the definition that feels right for each of us. I generally tell people who ask (and it comes up more often than you might think) that my religion is Unitarian Universalist Ethical Culturist. I am a member of two fellowships: The Unitarian Church of Staten Island and the New York Society for Ethical Culture. They do not contradict each other in any meaningful way, only in style and expression.

In casual conversation with people who don't know me very well, I sometimes just for brevity's sake say I'm agnostic or not religious. Many of my family members are devoutly attached to a specific theology (Fundamentalist Christianity for the majority of the folks on my father's side of the family, and a few Reform Jews on my mother's). Neither of my parents were "religious" in the colloquial meaning of the word, but that's a conversation for another blog post.

But if I channel the spirit of Thomas Paine, I can (somewhat) confidently say that I am indeed religious. I am also a spiritual person, even though I don't believe in the supernatural. Paine said, "...to do good is my religion" and that is the way I try to live my life. I have explored various religions and continue to debate with myself the existence of a god or gods. But with 60+ years of life experience, I've come to understand that I don't have to answer the age-old questions -- does God exist and if so what does He want from me -- to practice my two religions of Unitarian Universalism and Ethical Culture. Not all members of my community consider Ethical Culture a religion, but again, that's really just semantics. Call it what you want, but ultimately, what matters to me is not what you believe but what you do. Deed before creed.