Well, religious people have to realize that even if they wouldn't use the term to describe themselves, it's pretty normal for others to, so I assume most of the

Well, religious people have to realize that even if they wouldn't use the term to describe themselves, it's pretty normal for others to, so I assume most of them can cope without getting offended, but if you ask them if they self identify as religious, they might well say no despite being extremely devout. I think the argument with the word 'religious' is probably that it is perceived to have connotations of dry rule-following without any kind of meaning. It's not surprising that people want to avoid that sort of image, because they almost certainly don't see their own religion in that way.