Dr Paul Allen

When "Spiritual but Not Religious" Is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising  Places, Even the Church by Lillian Daniel Jericho Books , 2013 Having hung out with church folk for several decades, I have come to expect the words “spiritual but not religious” to be accompanied by air quotes and a tone of disdain. But lately even non-religious folk have begun to hate on the SBNR . One recent scientific study draws a link between mental illness and lazy spirituality—and some atheists scorn others for not having the courage to come out and admit what they really are. “Today’s secularists must do more than mount defensive campaigns proclaiming that we can be ‘good without God,’” writes one author; “‘spiritual, but not religious’… translated from the psychobabble, can mean just about anything—that the speaker is an atheist who fears social disapproval or a fence-sitter who wants the theoretical benefits of faith, including hope of eternal life, without the obligations of actually

The prevalence of mental disorders among those who 'do God' alone is an indictment of churches' failure to meet their needs People who are "spiritual but not religious" are more likely to suffer poor mental health, according to a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry . Michael King of University College London and his colleagues examined 7,400 interviews with folk in Britain, of whom 35% had a religious understanding of life, 19% a spiritual one and 46% neither a religious nor spiritual outlook. The analysis led to one clear conclusion. "People who have a spiritual understanding of life in the absence of a religious framework are vulnerable to mental disorder [dependence on drugs, abnormal eating attitudes, anxiety, phobias and neuroses]." The work supports evidence from other studies too. All the usual weaknesses associated with asking individuals about religion are at play here, as the authors acknowledge. Nonetheless, the study promp