This is one of the biggest problems in the world. Not lack of religion, because there's plenty of that. Statism is religion. The love of money is religion. Wokeness is religion. Cultural religion lacks spirituality, as well.
So what does it mean to be spiritual? For me, it first means understanding that the body is not Who We Are. The body is just a vehicle for consciousness. In this physical domain, there are all kinds of bodies. We're a beautifully diverse species. The problem is that we hyperfocus on these different expressions as if they are the totality of being. I speak from experience. Race, sexuality, gender, weight, tallness, etc. None of these things define us, they're just expressions. No singular expression is better than another. None of them make someone more superior. No one has more Rights because of their genetics, identity, skin color, sexual orientation, etc. These expressions help us have unique experiences in this domain. Nature is always striving to be more diverse and more complex. It's a beautiful thing.
A spiritually awake person understands this. They don't get caught up in their egos. They don't see people who have different expressions, traits, and identities as different subsets of human beings. They simply see human beings. And beyond that, they know who they are beneath it all: another sovereign spiritual being having an experience.
The good news is... this isn't the result of "human nature." It isn't the nature of the human being to behave and think this way. What it is is the result of conditioning. We are programmed and conditioned into believing that all of our bodily expressions and all of our identities are Who We Are. Religion, politics, entertainment, mainstream media, the medical industry... they all reinforce this programming. Why? Because the more obsessed we are with the body and the ego-self, the easier we are to control. Sever that spiritual connection, convince us that we're all just "evolved" apes, that the whole point of existence is to survive, and trick us into believing that someone (king, queen, president, prime minister, governor, etc) must rule the roost in order to prevent chaos... and you have the perfect slave species.
"This group wants to shit on my rights! Help us, mommy/daddy government!"
"That group wants to force its lifestyle onto us! Help us, mommy/daddy government!"
That's the point of all this ego-identity bullshit. They don't want any of us recognizing or remembering Who We Truly Are, that all of our differences are irrelevant in the bigger picture, that we're ALL Sovereign, that we're ALL Spiritual Beings here to learn, grow and evolve in consciousness. They want to stifle that evolution. They want us locked into these identity boxes. It keeps us stagnant, fearful, and manipulatable.
The Powers That Shouldn't Be never want us figuring that out because their reign would be over. They want us in-fighting. They want us hyperfocusing on all these different expressions. They want us completely disconnected, divided, controlled and ruled. We have to stop falling for it. We have to be BETTER than that. We have to stop identifying AS the vessel in which our consciousness resides, and stop seeing others the same way. You don't get into your car and say "I am my car," do you? No. We have to look at the body the same way... it's just a vessel, a vehicle. There's all sorts of makes and models, and they're all beautiful. They're all important tools. We need to take care of them and make sure they run properly. We can decorate them, have fun with them, expirament with them.. but we need to stop thinking we ARE them. All that has ever done is create suffering.
A spiritually awake person embraces all of Creation with Agapé Love. They don't live in fear. Fear only breeds ignorance, confusion, and chaos. Love overcomes it. It steps into uncharted territory with courage. Love leads to knowledge, sovereignty, and freedom. When you're trapped by ego, what are you doing? Your putting up a wall of fear. And then anyone can come along and make you buy into all sorts of nonsense. A spiritually awake person sees through the charade. They've raised their consciousness and can see the destructive patterns as well as the causal factors that lead to suffering. When you lack that spiritual knowing, all you see is the charade, and you believe it's real.
A spiritually awake person knows that every single human being has the same Rights, and that those Rights come from simply being alive. They are our Birthright. No one can take them away, no one can change them. They are fixed and eternal. They are under attack, however, and all of this ego stuff is part of that. Again, when all you think you are is your body, the ease in which you can be duped is very high. It leads to pure survivalism, moral relativism, social darwinism, and so on.
At the most fundamental spiritual level, we're all one. We are all individuated expressions of one eternal, divine source. We are gifted with two things in this domain: Free Will and Natural Law. We have the Free Will to choose any course of action, but we are not free to escape the consequences of those actions. If we continue down this spiritually devoid, egocentric path, all we'll get is more suffering, more conflict, more erosion of freedom, and more chaos.
If we start to reconnect with Who We Really Are, recognize that divine spark in our fellow human beings (regardless of differences), start developing and exercising Conscience, understand the causal factors of all of our suffering and STOP doing those things... then and ONLY then will we create the conditions we all say we want: peace, happiness, prosperity, and freedom.