Organized religion is the
social structure that produced such notables as
Siddhartha,
Lao Tzu,
Socrates,
Jesus,
Hillel,
al-Hallaj,
Nasruddin Rumi,
Francis of Assisi,
Erasmus of Rotterdam,
Isaac Newton, and
Gandhi (to name a few--thanks to my own background, the list is biased towards
Christians...)
This anecdotal evidence suggests that people who think and are free may still choose to belong to an organized religion.