I don't profess any religion; I don't think it’s possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words ‘spiritual’ or ‘spirituality.' [Interview, The New Yorker, Dec. 26, 2005]

In this statement Pullman positions himself as forthrightly nonreligious and, more specifically, as someone who finds theistic belief intellectually implausible. His emphasis on not understanding what people mean by “spiritual” or “spirituality” suggests skepticism not only toward organized religion but also toward vaguer, non-doctrinal forms of religiosity that rely on ambiguous language. The quote aligns with Pullman’s public reputation as a critic of religious authority and as a novelist whose work often explores moral life without recourse to supernatural guarantees. It underscores a preference for clear, worldly terms over metaphysical ones, and it frames disbelief as a matter of conceptual clarity as much as conviction.