"a serious belief in a personal God who cares and controls the universe"

That's a certain type of belief about God, Bill. I don't think my concept of God is much like that at all. I have no idea if there's a personal God who cares and controls the universe. The various Asian belief systems do not seem to posit that type of a God, as far as I can see. In Buddhism, for example, there is no such deity, but it's still a spiritual system and a spiritual way of looking at life.

How do spiritual beliefs affect people's actions? Well, that depends on what their spiritual beliefs are, doesn't it? And those vary enormously from one psrson to another, even within any given faith.

To find out what anyone's core beliefs are, you have to be around them for awhile and observe their actions and behaviour toward others quite carefully. You can't predict it merely on the basis of their religious affiliation, that's for sure.