Do spiritualists lack critical thinking and are all thinking people atheists?

Akundha Prabhu, do spiritualists lack critical thinking and are all thinking people atheists? Answer, without having critical thinking one cannot become a spiritualist at all one might become a religionist because of some naive faith in somebody's charisma, somebody's magic or just some deference to tradition but that sort of religious belief where one doesn't question what one is believing is very different from spirituality spirituality essentially is understanding the spirit that underlies matter and unless one has critical thinking, one cannot see beyond appearances to actualities so without the capacity for critical thinking, one cannot understand that this world is a place of misery and that the worldly things which promise enjoyment will actually end in suffering, for realizing this, for perceiving this one needs critical thinking and in fact it is because most people lack critical thinking that's why they continue to be materialists now some of these materialists may be religionists also, but they are practicing religious materialism because they think that they are still attracted by the various material allurements and enjoyments of this world and they think that religion is a tool to fulfill their fantasies for getting these enjoyments, so that's why critical thinking is absolutely essential for practicing spiritual life I have written a Gita daily about how we have to use the doubting faculty to doubt doubting faculty is a characteristic of intelligence and Srila Prabhupada explains that only when we use the doubting faculty to question whether this material world is truly a place where we can become happy, whether we belong here then the spiritual quest begins, Athato Brahma Jigyasa the spiritual enquiry begins only when one has the critical capacity to recognize that there is something beyond matter one who is naive and gullible believes that material enjoyment is all that there is to life and there is nothing beyond matter, so certainly far from lacking critical thinking, spiritualists are the only people who have critical thinking in a sense at least critical in the sense of going beyond matter to spirit in being able to see beyond appearances to actuality, now are all thinking people atheists? certainly not but some thinking people if they do not enquire about and do not encounter the philosophical aspects of spirituality and they just look at the cultural aspects the religious rituals and the various actions that may appear to be and may even be superstitious then they may start feeling that all religion is just filled with people who are gullible and who are not having critical faculty and then they start thinking that the only way I can be intellectually honest is by rejecting religious belief and so they go towards atheism however atheism itself is a belief system it is the religion of belief and disbelief because there is no way one can prove that there is no God and it is just one's belief system it is just one's dogmatic faith that there is no God so certainly atheism itself is not a belief system that can withstand critical scrutiny it is primarily a reaction to the blind beliefs that often go on in the name of religion and as contrasted with them, atheism may to some people seem more intellectually respectable but if they actually inquire deeper beyond the rituals and they are fortunate enough to meet a philosophically informed spiritualist, then they will understand that their own belief in atheism needs to be subjected to critical scrutiny and then they will move away from atheism and they won't return to blind belief which is often what much religion is but they will go towards educated, intelligent enlightened belief based on philosophical analysis and personal experience.