The Religious: We're Right Because We Say We're Right
Organized religion is a plague on the face of the world. It smokes and writhes through human history leaving death, destruction, hate, fear and oppression in its wake. Nothing can withstand it. It despises reason, it hates anything that is different than itself and it will do whatever necessary to survive. In all but a tiny number of cases, it only dies when another, stronger faith takes its place. But, truly I say to you, it can not be killed. It hides, ready to rear its ugly, bigoted head wherever it can find people afraid. Where fear lives, religion lives also. The justification for this? That if you do not live as whatever book, mantra or guru says you should live you will die the true death and nothing can save you from Hell.
Spiritualism: The Rationalists
Where atheism purports to not believe in god, agnostics twist in the wind and the religious demand absolute obedience, spiritualism does not demand a thing. Spiritualism has no dogma, no doctrine and no organization beyond the local group. In fact, there is no need for a group at all. A person can be spiritual within themselves. They don't need a shrine, although that is not forbidden because there is no-one to forbid such things. Each person looks within themselves and decides for themselves how and where they will find that spark that illuminates, that intrinsic part of the human spirit that inspired Michelangelo, drove Beethoven and teaches us to know our fellow man as an equal person. Real, honest spiritualism demands nothing, but gives so much in return.
Why Atheism Doesn't Make Sense
Atheism, it seems to me, is a backlash against religion rather than the rationalist counter that it purports to be. Most atheists that I have talked to admit that there is a possibility of something greater than ourselves, especially in the spiritual sense, however, there is a great deal of fear that any give will be seen as weakness by the religious and attacked. So they must appear to be completely devoted to the idea that there is no god.
But, atheists are missing the point. First of all, the word image that is portrayed by the word atheist waves a red flag in the face of every person of faith. It pours gasoline on the fire of faith by sticking in their face the fact that someone, somewhere not only has not converted to their particular brand of lunacy, but denies the very existence of the basis of that lunacy. So, atheism doesn't make any sense. They should call themselves something else, like the anti-religious or areligious, because it is the tyranny of religion that they are fighting, not spiritualism and certainly not reason.
Atheism also doesn't make sense in the idea that there is nothing other than what is "rational". Quantum physics and Quantum mechanics are rapidly showing us that our limited physical ideas of space and time, what we would call the "rational universe", is just a tiny part of what is actually happening. Dark matter, dark energy, Superstings, quantum fluctuations in space-time, the Hubble constant not being a constant at all, but an ever increasing rate of expansion, multiple dimensions, black holes and the very nature of space-time itself all show that our "rational universe" is not very rational at all.
So, for atheism to seem to be against all forms of spiritualism (although they would argue that they are not) smacks of hubris of the worst kind. In fact, it echoes the hubris of the religious person that shouts out that something is so because "God wills it". Either point is equally ridiculous to my mind.
Conclusion
In reality there is no such thing as an atheist or an agnostic. There are only two camps of people: the spiritualists and the religious. The spiritualists are those who do not necessarily subscribe to the dogma and doctrine of a particular religion, although sometimes they do. They believe part of the dogma of a particular faith, but find the rest of that faith to be bunk. There are many spiritualists who call themselves Christians who would never enforce their particular belief system on anyone else. Those people are spiritualists at heart, not religious. Atheists, who purport not to believe in "god", also seem to have some spiritual grounding. A belief in something that they may not be able to even articulate, but that belief is there. Thus, they too are spiritualists, but of that most rational of bents.
On the other hand the religious will, by whatever means necessary, enforce their will on as many people as possible. They will demand that their places of worship be considered holy, even by them that do not subscribe to their faith. They will enforce their moral code on all of humanity, if they can. They will force conversions, demand treatment that others do not receive and condemn to Hell those who do not agree with them. That is religion and the vast majority of people in Christian churches, Jewish synagogues and Islamic mosques do not fall into that category. But, those same people, that I would argue are spiritualists and not religious at all, provide the money and manpower to the few who are religious and wish to dominate through fear.
In the final analysis, atheism and agnosticism don't make any sense. The fight for the human spirit is between the rational and the irrational. Between the spiritualists and the religious. Between the drooling, mindless infancy of our species and the proud adulthood that awaits us. Religion and atheism were both necessary steps on the way to adulthood, but now it is time for us to take the next step to rational spiritualism that respects the rights of the individual, turns fear to understanding, emphasizes the greatness of the human spirit and recognizes just how much we could become.
"Organized religion is a plague on the face of the world. It smokes and writhes through human history leaving death, destruction, hate, fear and oppression in its wake. Nothing can withstand it. It despises reason, it hates anything that is different than itself and it will do whatever necessary to survive."
I like the conclusion also.