Good point, Buck, good point. I think you're onto something for sure. For instance, Buddhists are both religious and spiritual, but they don't believe in a deity, they believe in a process of spiritual evolution toward enlightenment...enlightenment being a unitive state of oneness with everything.

Then there are Taoists. They don't believe in a deity either, they believe in a harmonious "Way" (the way things are, and the way things function) that can be seen in Nature, and they attempt to live by that Way.

I personally find Taoism to be an excellent way of looking at things.

So, yeah, you can be spiritual (even religious!) and NOT believe in a deity.

Is that the same as being an atheist? Some would say yes, some would say no. That would depend on their personal interpretation of the word "atheist".

I don't think atheism is based on "no rules", exactly. I think it's based on "no rules having been given out by a human-like deity with an identifiable name and personality". But again, it would depend on the variety OF atheism. There isn't just one kind of atheism, no more than there is one kind of religion.