I've never considered myself to be religious, if anything, more spiritual. I see religion itself as more of a cultural thing.

I say I'm not religious because I think I've become too steeped in science and logical reasoning to be able to follow the intricate rituals and myths of religion. I have never personally felt a connection with god, nor seen any scientific evidence. But I won't rule it out.

If there were a higher power, I think there would have to be only one. Each religion then would simply be a unique cultural expression to enable a person to connect with that higher power. So I see religions as just different manifestations of that same spirituality, for the lack of a better term. Similar to how twins with identical DNA can have divergent gene expressions based on environment and randomness.

What I appreciate about religion is the community and baseline moral order that it establishes. On the other hand, I don't appreciate how much suffering organized religion has brought onto the world. I don't know if it's really religion's fault per se, or rather just an inherent human/primal tendency to out-group. Regardless, religion has too many times been used to justify horrific acts of oppression and violence. I think this was imprinted on me in elementary school when we learned about the missions in California, where Spanish colonists would convert indigenous people into Catholicism. I never understood the need to convert people between religions, or the idea that a religion is right or wrong. If we're all trying to connect ourselves to a higher power, the way you express that is just your own culture.

So I am not religious, but I do appreciate the beauty and miracle of life. There are some questions about how it all started, why it all started, and how it works that we don't know yet. Maybe we'll never know, or maybe we're not supposed to know. I don't know, I am just a simple human. For my peace, I quote Jack Johnson, "Love is the answer, at least, to most of the things in my heart, like: why are we here, where do we go, and how come it's so hard?"