The Alchemist is clearly a novel about spiritual growth. Do you think the message of the book goes against the idea of organized religion?

The novel supports a type of ecumenical religion, that is, it suggests that all religions are the same when comparing their bases. The main ideas that unite these religions (in this case, Christianity and Islam) are their monotheistic bases and the fact that God has a destiny already written for each person. The novel also supports a pantheistic idea, as it proposes that a person's soul is part of the "Soul of the World", a term that is also used in the novel to refer to God. The book proposes that God is not a being apart from us, but unites the souls of all who compose the universe. The novel does not show a direct critique of organized religion, but it does show a lack of emphasis on certain elements of it (e.g., religious rituals and hierarchies, etc.).