Yep, I read her works as a teen and never saw it as anything more than some thought provoking nuts and bolts fiction that I could learn from in regards to that you mention, it never occurred to me to look into who she was as a person or to pay any attention to her in regards to God and faith.
You sound like me..I loved her novels but would have never thought to become some devotee of her ‘teachings’ like a cult follower or research her life, etc.
The 1960’s and 70’s was full of authors and thinkers with cult followings...I just never had much use for stuff like that. In fact..whenever I sensed an author like that, I would run in the opposite direction...lol. I remember my hippie older sister coming home with a book called..’Be Here Now’ by some moron. I remember picking it up and thinking it was the stupidest book I had ever read...lol. Hippies everywhere carted it around like a bible or something.