Well, fortunately the spiritual material that I study does encourage me to think for myself, and does not lay down rules and restrictions.

I am just as disinclined as you are to let others do my thinking for me, and I have no interest in joining any formalized religious sect with any formalized set of rules.

Neither, however, do I believe that there is no basis for a spiritual viewpoint on life, and that seems to be the extreme that others wish to go to when they deny all forms of spirituality. They act like religious fundamentalists themselves, only from the exact opposite direction. They insist that others are "wrong" not to believe as they do. They insist that things other people believe can't have any basis. This is just as dogmatic and fanatical as insisting on a literal belief IN an organized religion's tenets, I think.

I see remarkably rigid intolerance and remarkably rigid forms of faith being practiced on both sides of that divide, and I don't care for it. They both pretend to have a certainty, but their certainty is based on faith, emotional preference, customary habits, and a set of rigid assumptions which they take for granted.

They appear to deserve one another! ;-) (I mean, the dogmatic religionist and the dogmatic anti-religionist.)

I agree about all the errors in thinking you point out in religions. Fine. I see similar errors in thinking amongst those who make hating and critizing religion their pet hobby. I think such people are psychologically ill, frankly, but it's a pretty common illness...just like unreasoning patriotism and other emotional obsessions.