Raw spirituality: An overlooked form of faith?

I've seen many conversations over the internet debating the views of atheism vs. religion, however, I've seen very little reference to spirituality in those debates. Some people regard religion and spirituality in the same light, as if being a spiritual person equates to being a religious person. To me (and many others,) religion is just a condensed form of spirituality; guided down a specific path by history, culture and civilization. Here's a string of simpler logic explaining my thoughts: Religion calls for spirituality but spirituality does not call for religion. Spirituality in it's own right is a much broader idea with far less absolutes. I view religion as a mere avenue of spirituality. Cultural historian William Irwin Thompson states: "Religion is not identical with spirituality; rather religion is the form spirituality takes in civilization." Spirituality seems to be an important third factor often left out of the debate equation due to the lack of a historical past that can be associated with it. Religions usually have a strong historical backing that is passed-on to gain followers and Atheism is backed by scientific study and raw logic. Spirituality doesn't have either of these as a basis and is far more ambiguous, making it rarely considered for debate when conversations regarding faith occur.

Personally, I don't completely relate to any one religion but I believe in many spiritual aspects of life and I feel that there is an unknown entity/concept that could be considered 'God.' I know that a belief in God is synonymous with religion, but bear with me here for a minute. Here is a little dose of what I like to call "spiritual science" from my man; Einstein. Einstein used the equation E=mc2 to prove that everything in existence is energy. Solid matter is an illusion. Personally I believe that the truth lies somewhere in that study. 'God' could be the collective consciousness of everything combined, after all, the entire universe is connected, even if only by the mysterious flow of cause and effect at every scale. There seems to be only two real things in reality: Energy and Consciousness. When you're able study E=mc2 and deduce that everything is energy, you come to the conclusion that maybe aura's, reiki-healing and the 'law of attraction' could be very real concepts. I'll make a continuation of this hub later-on as this sort of study is very tiring. This is my general view on reality as of -Oct 20, 2010.