Justified or not, the cynicism that marked the death of the Big Idea has crippled organized religion as well.

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"They say God laughs when we're referred to as an organized religion, and maybe we're seeing that here, " he says.

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Some critics who say that Scouts have failed to change with the times blame the connections to organized religion.

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The media are already probing into and constructing a Romney-As-Mormon Bishop profile, and so far only finding the usual apparent contradictions available in any organized religion.

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Organized religion is going to have to explain its necessity.

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Many couples may not be affiliated with an organized religion.

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My mother, whose parents were Baptist and Methodist, grew up with a certain skepticism about organized religion, and she usually only took me to church on Easter and Christmas -- sometimes.

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"If you think about going from a hunter-gatherer society to this highly centralized society with an organized religion, it's a pretty dramatic change to take place over a very short period of time, " Haas says.

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Some of the more prominent founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, were vocal about their opposition to organized religion, while other notable founders, like Patrick Henry, were strong proponents of traditional religion.

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Organized religion doesn't seem to work.

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Fortunately, Pilgrim Faith is attracting some new members, and my family, which started going there four years ago, was like just about all of them: coming from the local, dominant Catholic faith, and deciding that we and our families would rather have some church affiliation than leave organized religion entirely.

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But in recent years, the American perspective on religion has changed in a way that often favors private worship over organized religious services.

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