‘Spiritual But Not Religious’: Rethinking the Legal Definition of Religion – (Note: one download allowed) Courts and legal scholars misunderstand a burgeoning group of Americans who identify as “spiritual but not religious,” excluding them from religious protection. A recent case dismissed as nonreligious the beliefs of a plaintiff whose beliefs are paradigmatic of this growing cohort. To analyze how the law defines religion, this paper argues they are sufficiently analogous to religious belief systems to deserve the same legal protection.
