Religion was never much of an influence in my life but I took it for granted that I must have held a basic belief in God and Jesus. My sister once described our family as "non-church-goers." Around my mid-fifties, I felt the need to take my spiritual life more seriously. Given the plethora of denominations available, I decided that since they all had the Bible in common, I would read it in an effort to find my faith. As you might expect, the effect was just the opposite. I couldn't reconcile the inconsistencies, contraditions, and stuff that just didn't make sense. The god described in that book was not a god I could believe in, much less worship. At the time I was doing a lot of yoga with a partcular interest in the philosophy behind it. I found that Eastern philosophies such as the Yoga Sutras and Buddhism made a lot more sense They didn't demand obedience or belief. Instead, they encouraged me to test these ideas and see if they were true for me.