Religion and spirituality -two different things?

A few years back, I wrote an article for an online men's interest magazine, Askmen and it recieved a LOT of anger and annoyed comments. Why did it get such a bad time? The article was called 'The argument for religion'. Did it have bias toward any religious viewpoint? Not at all. It wasn't called 'The argument for Christianity', for example. Rather, it looked to define what was positive about being involved in what you believe. For example, you integrate into a community, you can develop yourself according to what you think and find support and help to grow in your beliefs. These are positive aspects of taking that leap into a group of fellow believers -whatever that belief may be. It simply aimed to give people permission to try it out. If you'd like, you can read it for yourself: http://uk.askmen.com/entertainment/special_feature_400/418b_the-argument-for-religion.html Anyway, when taking a look at it last night, for the first time in years, I noticed that only one comment remained on the end of the article. Just hours after it first published, there were many many angry comments (some of them actually stated that they refused to read the article due to the title...but were livid that the editors would allow such 'preachy, narrowminded' contributors'. Really? Still, all that was deleted. One comment remained, left by a guy whose facebook profile pic was of trees, sillhouetted in a sunset: "Religion and spirituality are two different things. This article is insanely fallacious!" This was my response to that comment Religion and spirituality can be regarded as two different things, yes, but usually by those who are trying dreadfully hard to state what they're not in order to differentiate between themselves and others, who, for example, may be subject to their negative judgement due to their views or life choices. Someone may regard themselves as 'spiritual' and have great disdain toward the idea of being called 'religious' and visa versa. However, spirituality is concerned with the none physical and tangible aspects of our lives -although we most often make these considerations physical and tangible with crosses, Buddhist statues, crystals and whatever other paraphernalia typically associated with any belief one may have. The metaphysical concerns, curiousities or questions we have are 'spiritual' by definition and in nature. We may then express our 'spiritual beliefs' (which are simply the conclusions we've come to after considering 'spiritual' matters) through how we act, who with, where we go, how we decorate and dress...most often in an habitual way as a matter of principle and repeatedly through our lives -in a word, you could call it 'religiously'. And yes, that's the correct word for it. How we express our spiritual beliefs is most likely what's referred to when saying religion and spirituality are two different things. Those clinging proudly to the 'spirituality' label for all it's 'open mindedness and freedom' would often frown on the idea of being 'religious' for fear of their identities being grouped with those stiff, unthinking and closed off religious types all herded into church. Of course, the 'spiritualist' would 'religiously' read their horoscope, take note of the moon's cycles, hang crystals around the house or attend group meetings for positive healing and companionship with likeminded souls. All lifestyle reactions to a spiritual belief system. A relgious reaction to spirituality. Equally, those within the mainstream religion category might wish to emphasise the legitimacy of their 'spiritual' beliefs by attempting to look more credible, authentic and less 'airy fairy' by focusing on structure, social standing, being very thought out and decided in what they believe and trying to ensure all believers think exactly the same way -and from just one source of authority, such as the Bible or Qu'ran. But for all the -call it 'religion'- in how they express their 'spiritual beliefs', they're still interacting with the world around them after drawing conclusions (spiritual beliefs) from their metaphysical (spiritual) questioning of life. Their lives have simply become very 'religious' regarding their 'spirituality'. No more, though, than one concerned with apparently non-religious spirituality.....who attends meetings, gathers with particular people, engages in faith healing, wears/uses crystals, develops a moral code in keeping with their spiritual beliefs about how to act toward people. "Religion" is actually the outward expression of one's 'spirituality'. And as much as 'the spiritual' would try to differentiate between themselves and those believing in the mainstream religions, so as not to relate to those they view as being 'bound by their beliefs', it's true to say that everyone concerned has drawn conclusions regarding the spiritual, developed a spirituality about themselves and responded religiously in one way or the other. The two are absolutely intertwined. Saying they are two different things is a narrowminded viewpoint (possibly insanely fallacious) which hints at personal bias and a wrong idea of 'spirituality' and 'religion' in their true sense. It is a comment usually (from experience) coming from someone of a 'spiritual' belief (i.e. not one of a main religion), who wishes to (re)define 'spirituality' in terms of freedom of thought, free of religious binding, and about oneself as opposed to about a God, -in fact, anything other than mainstream religion- instead of considering that 'spirituality' is for all.....even those rigid churchy types. And all those free 'spiritual thinkers' are absolutely free to 'religiously' use crystals, engage in psychic phenomena, become aware of the earth's energies, find the strength in one's own positive thinking...and take sunset photo's for their profile pictures. ------ I would love to know what you think