My life has been punctuated by severe illness, young deaths and general missfortune but, still, I consider myself, probably, the happiest man alive.

I look around me at people who have full health, bodies that work normally and an attitude that would suggest that they, alone, carry the woes of the world upon their shoulders. It puzzles me that, with all their blessings, they cannot see the glories that surround them and be thankful for the wonders that their lives are filled with.

Generally I have very strong opinions on just about anything of which I have knowledge but one thing has always eluded me - the value of organised religion.

Most of my life has been a quest to discover God. Who or what He/She/It is has occupied much of my idle time. I have no doubt that God exists because I cannot imagine anything that could explain the multiplicity and complexity of life on this little planet. A cusory examination of the theory of evolution, as proposed by Darwin, is enough to show that, while his level of knowledge really didn't leave him anywhere else to go with his thinking at the time, subsequent discoveries leave no basis upon which the theory can stand.

I have searched, in vain, for people who can answer the many questions I have about God but who could also explain God to me without having recourse to holy books. My God is quite a fearsome and vengeful god but I tend towards a belief in Gaia and the return of our living soul to the whole where it can be recharged and used again.

Religion started when man first became aware that, one day, he would die. God was around an eternity before that day.