I would say……most of what you have observed and hated about religion in your life’s experience is absolutely true and accurate! You’re not wrong! Notice, I said religion and not necessarily what the Bible says; Religion is one of the most diabolical institutions that has ever been contrived by man; what do I mean by that? a. Religion is manipulative; it will try to scare someone into trying to move an individual toward God; for example, “you don’t want to go to hell, do you? b. Religion is coercive as it will drill into a person’s mind how bad they are and they are just a worm and unworthy; and anything that is fun or joyful MUST be sin c. Religion is all about following rules in order to try to please God; I call it the ‘works mentality’; trying to do good things in order to please God without the key ingredient, which is Love; all structure + no love = no spirtuality d. Religion makes no sense nor does it have a logic base to it; “God Loves you but he might put a disease on you to teach you a lesson” What? e. Religion is not the truth and it is complicated; it also hates when people ask questions, because, it cannot answer any of them because of the complexity of the ‘half truths and lies that it embodies. I always believed in God but grew up with a very structured religion; but the older I got, the more I could see the holes and inconsistencies in it. Going to church out of nothing more than an obligation. But then came the birth of my first child which I would call my first Spiritual experience. The entire process of a little form of live, living inside of a mother and then popping out in 9 months…. Truly miraculous! This was something that went way beyond my intellect on that day. I had an instant Love for that child even though they only knew how to eat, sleep and poop at first. And when we were in anticipation of our 2 nd and 3 rd children, I got some funny thoughts about ‘how can I love these other children as much as the first? Was it a 33/33/33 split? No, it was multiplied! 300%! I had the same amount of love for each one. You see the funny thoughts were in my mind, but the miracle of my ‘multiplication love’ was deep inside of me…. This is called the spirit of man according to the Bible; A completely different area than the mind (the computer I call it); the Spirit man is deep inside of us and this is where love resides. The Bible says God is love (not that He has love like you and me) but He IS love. Well guess what? No matter how much you try to figure out God in your head, He will never make sense to you in that arena. He is trying to gain access into your heart- your spirit. Well, the Bible says that God is a Spirit so he is trying to communicate with you—Spirit to spirit; Why do you think so many athletes and prominent people in growing numbers are giving Honor to God for what they do? Are they so deceived that they are using religion as a crutch like I used to think? Are they that gullible? No sir, they have connected with God according to what the Bible states which is letting Jesus Christ into their heart (spirit)….. the bible says you must have the mind of a child to receive God….. not complicated, but simple faith. And without that connection being made, your spirit inside of you is dead to God. It is like looking at a blank computer screen expecting to see something to happen when someone forgot to hook up the wifi. August 21, 1991 is when I made that connection and the fountain of life in me has never been quenched from that day to this one! Wouldn’t it be just like this God that rules the universe to make a connection with Him so easy that I child could not miss it? God is the TRUE equal opportunity Ruler! He is in Love with everyone and no one has an unfair advantage/disadvantage to making Him Lord of their lives. Last point, He will not force Himself on anyone….. everyone has their own freewill to accept Him or reject Him…. He wanted to create living beings to worship and love Him because they wanted to and not because they had to do so. So the next time you think of God, make sure you separate out the religious junk that you might have grown up with and focus strictly on the Truth of the Bible. What I just explained to you IS the Gospel, which means good news and it is for everyone on planet earth!! He is just a prayer of invitation away!