the soul and my concept of understanding it

Conformity ( if there is such a word) is what mainstream religion is all about.It is no longer individual choice nor individual thought/action but collective choice and action.This bothers me because, as i know it, each man/person is responsible for his OWN actions and sins,( whether someone introduces the idea of sin into your head/mind/thought is irrelevant. The fact that you decide to go along with it .. is)so if we are individually responsible for our own actions, why then does mainstream religion ask for conformity??I feel that on some level comformity weilds control and power. Power over anothers thoughts and action. Why people would once that .... go figure!!On so many levels I feel that it is clear on what should be or not be done to advance our souls.The thought that someone else should interprete for me ( on one hand being a noble task to do... on another hand being ..- what is wrong with me that i cant seek to find out for myself-) what i should do or dont do is foreign.
On a lot of scales ( usually mine) i feel interpretation of messages from one language to another leads to loss of message, loss of intent and loss of meaning. Sort of like chinese whispers- The end statement bears no semblance to the first message.What i have come to now think is that interpretation and understanding of any message relies largly on the person first by way of how they are ging to process the information and secondly on their personal circumstances. Circumstances like growing up factors, good or bad experiences, life factors etc which all can affect how one person relates to and links with a message.
All these things are intrinsic to the individual upbringing,.
So for one person to tell me they have mastered religion and that they are the fore front in trying to understand religious messages, then i think not. for the reasons i have mentioned earlier.
The moral of the message guys and dolls!! is not to rely on someone else to tell you what to do regarding religion or any other thing for that matter. but to research various fields,to try to undertsand and to come to a conclusion for yourself on what is right or wrong.
For those of you muslims there see Surah 40:28-29. I read this part and i thought pharoah was trying to act as a source of guidance to his people similar to the way we see all these muslim scholars/teachers all trying to act as a source of guidance for people. Trying to stamp their authority and knowledge on us and not giving room for questions or expansions on their theories.
Anyways, God is the only source of guidance and you can only accept Gods words as bond. anything else is subject to human falseness and braggadociosness.
We should compete in righteousness. which is a good trait to have. Discuss amongst each other on what you feel, open up our minds to maybe other explanations and then decide by ourselves for ourselves what we intend to do. At the end of the day its your soul that is at stake, not your friends soul, nor your fathers soul, not your spouses' soul. but your soul that is at stake.