I admit I haven't read this entire thread so I apologize if my opinion doesnt address anything that was said here specifically.
But on the topic of religion and society, I do not believe religion to be a necessity for knowing God. Religion and spiritual worship in its earliest forms, dating back thousands of years, before Christianity, the crusades, before anything we've come to know today, was simply a system of applying personification to scientific fact. Personalities and myth were applied to the science of astronomy in order to understand and teach this scientific phenomenon.
One thing that modern society, ESPECIALLY Westerners forget, is that despite being ancient and 'primitive' civilizations, they were far more in tune with the Universe and the planet than we are today. Their wholistic approach to spirituality and science helped them understand FAR more than we do today, relatively speaking. They navigated, they grew crops, they understood star systems and were able to project and extrapolate astronomical and celestial phenomenon with precision that rivals today's best scientists. If science, nature and spirituality weren't completely divorced from one another by means of corporate patent, money and government, the advances WE'D be making in this day and age as a society with our wealth and technology would be mind boggling.
Throughout the years most of these 'pagan' religions were usurped and integrated into political systems of various cultural backgrounds, or simply adopted and modifed slightly, because the foundations were and continue to be UNCHANGING and inimical to the human experience. What was Horus to the Egyptians is Christ to us and some other God to some other culture are one in the same because it's all derived from the same starting point, which is nothing more than the symbiotic relationship between man and his environment.
Anyone who claims their religion is the 'beacon of light' or anything else to that effect better stand in line because at root they present NOTHING new to the world stage. The ability to pursue spirituality is an individual endeavour which requires nothing but an open mind.