The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church.
I think there's been a big problem between religion or organized religion and spirituality.
Just in our lifetime our society has become looser and more private it becomes extremely difficult to hold to any permanent commitment whatever least of all to organized religion.
It is very reasonable to worry about the harm done by organized religion and to prefer looser and more private arrangements.
It's a bit odd that nobody seems to be using the correct technical term to describe organized Islamic terrorists. They are not a faction of a religion or a social movement. They are a cult. A suicide cult.
I never found much comfort in overly organized religion of any sort.
I believe that there is some spiritual entity that's greater than us. I do not belong to any specific organized religion. I have always believed that and I believe it even more so now. I believe that someone was listening to me and someone is giving me an incredibly blessed life.
I decided to take God and organized religion seriously and to reject the secular life which in my teens had looked attractive because it allowed me to act in any way that I wanted.
I hate organized religion. I think you have to love thy neighbor as thyself. I think you have to pick your own God and be true to him. I always say 'him' rather than 'her.' Maybe it's because of my generation but I don't like the idea of a female God. I see God as a benevolent male.
Nothing has done more to separate and divide human beings one from another than exclusivist organized religion.