"GUEST,Just a passing thought", you are raising an important point, often referred to as "private spirituality". The idea is that you choose (or even "cherry pick") a religion you are happy with, and do not care what others believe. You are perfectly entitled to do that, but in my experience and knowledge of human nature, it is not what people really want. Neither is Musket's diametrical extreme of just picking the buildings, gowns, and rituals.

The primary idea of religion implies sharing it with your community and your ancestors (sorry for repeating myself). Sharing means compromise; individualists (like most Mudcatters including myself) will have their problems. Also, the way people think and speak changes dramatically in the course of the centuries, causing old language to change or lose its meaning. To cope with that, we must make an effort to identify the important essence and transfer it into our own ways of thinking. It cannot always be successful, but the alternative "they all are superstitious morons; I can do on my own" is much less desirable.

Of course all holy books emphasize the value of collective worship. Temples on "sacred sites" are actually frowned upon by most theologians, but all religious organizations have them, together with other old practices that can be called superstitious.