I would agree with your assertion that the powers of organized religious institutions needs to be checked, just like any form of consolidated power. I would argue that your proposed world would be yet another form of consolidated power. Even a secular regime would face the same temptation to persecute, simply because they can. I’m not saying morality is the exclusive purview of religion. Thank deconstructed my religious beliefs and flirted with atheism, in doing so I had to explain to myself “why be moral?”. It wasn’t too hard to not want to be an asshole, as it turns out. No commandments from God necessary.

Just as I would tell a religious person to not mistake the artifacts, tools, and institutions of religion for an actual experience with God, I would ask that you not to mistake structures and institutions of power for an authentic and humble search for spiritual meaning.

I fully believe that you can achieve the same level of “spiritual” awareness as an atheist that a religious/spiritual person can achieve. That’s another topic for another day however.