Indeed, the religions were organised to control the mass according to the vision of elites. They acted like opium that dumbed the human rationality.

Even most of the messiahs from the different religions never wanted or thought of organising a religion. For them, religion was a very individualistic and personal thing, just like love. For example, you can look at Buddha or Jesus life. They never talked about any organised religion and just wanted to knock at the door of the heart of the individual, so that the real religion can born inside him/her. That was the possibility and the original purpose of coming together as a community.

But, when they died, the elites took control of their teachings, suppressed whatever they wanted and erected the fake religions to carry on their social and political agenda.

So, in my opinion, a person can not be religious in real sense, unless he is connected to his heart and the life around. Everything else is mass control and manipulation.