Can an atheist be spiritual?

I do not believe in God. I do not wish to start a discussion about this. I just ask you to accept this.

However, I think that the most important world problems are symptoms of an underlying spiritual crisis. Global warming, pollution, fossil fuel depletion, plant and animal extinctions and, to a degree, global terrorism have the same root cause.

We in industrial nations have created large bureaucratic government and corporate structures and have reduced ourselves to the role of consumers. We have cut ourselves off from the natural world. We have come to define ourselves based on what we own. We have become isolated from one another, spending huge amounts of time fiddling with electronic gadgets. We have created suburbs that, IMHO, are extraordinarily ugly.

While I agree that we must find alternative, renewable, energy sources, I am not convinced that these sources will allow us to maintain our current consumption rate and, even if they do, that they will solve the underlying problem.

While I strongly oppose both the methods and beliefs of Islamic terrorists, I believe that part of the reason for their existence is the spiritual vacuum that they see in modern societies.

And if things seem bad now, you ain’t seen nothing. We are busy obliterating distinctions between the natural and the man made. Through robotics and genetic engineering, we will be entering a brave new world that will make us nostalgic for arguments over abortion.

I believe there is something beyond our individual selves that we have lost contact with. Call it humanity or perhaps Nature, but there is something that we have alienated ourselves from that traditional religions do not address.

So if I start a new secular religion based on these ideas, do you think that you might join?