> > > Spen"forget religion just follow God"ser
> >
> > What do you mean by religion? I understand religion as a system set up by a person or people to reach God.
>
> What I meant by religion is an organized system.

Churches, then? See, I agree with you on principle. You can have a relationship with God that doesn't involve anybody else. But championing this just feels like gratuitous FIGHT THE SYSTEM rebellion that happens once people are just mature enough to realize that systems aren't perfect and not quite mature enough to realize that no system at all (religious anarchy?) is almost always worse.

I don't know what your spiritual beliefs are, but if they are at all based on the Bible, you might consider that the Bible is clear that God's intention is that we congregate together with other believers in fellowship for the purpose of teaching, mutual support, an organized system of charity, and so on. It's the way things were intended to work.

Coming at the same issue from another perspective, the Bible also has an emphasis on learning and spiritual knowledge. If we make an analogy of this pursuit with the pursuit of, say, academic knowledge or athletic skill -- well, let's just say it's folly to try to learn about history or science or math without teachers and possibly fellow students, or to become good at baseball without a coach and other players to collaborate and compete with. Almost all human endeavor is collaborative in nature. Even with personal things, such as marriage, we find value in collaborative assistance. We learn from our parents, by example and usually also by direct teaching. There is a *host* of marital aids out there, from books to professional counselors, that obviously there is an important market for.

By saying "we don't need organized religion; we can just follow God," you are stating something that, like every other basic human endeavor I can think of, is technically true but utterly foolish to attempt if one has the choice.