When I was 8 years old, my parents decided to join the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (That's the Mormon church to the uninitiated). Of course I remember very little of being that young, let alone joining the church, but it happened nonetheless. How an eight year old can supposedly make a decision like that is beyond me, but that's really neither here nor there. The point was that I was now a Mormon, and that's the way I grew up.

I went to church, or should I say was forced to go to church, for the entire time I lived at home. Then, as soon as I moved out when I was 18, I didn't go to church anymore. Ever. You see, I never liked it, something always felt wrong to me about the entire process. The people within the church always espoused that it was the best church, because it was the "right" church, and this never made sense to me. Most of the people that I went to church with simply followed this logic blindly, and I never understood it.

In any case, I continued on with my life, not going to any church and buying into any religion, but always believing in a higher power of some sort. I could never wrap my mind around the fact that God speaks only to certain people, and guides them to start a certain church. In my mind, we were all equal in the eyes of God, none of us better than anyone else, and none of us any more "right" than anyone else.

I began studying spiritual texts like the Science of Mind, Bhagavad-Gita, Bible, and Koran. Not with any religion in mind, just to study them for myself and see what I thought. They all spoke to me. In my opinion none of them espoused the kinds of things many humans claim they do. They're all about things like peace, love, and non judgment. And being kind and doing the right thing. Overcoming fear and listening to your heart. I agreed with much of what all of these spiritual texts offered me, and through the process, I gave up drinking alcohol and smoking. I wasn't intending for these things to happen, but I'm glad they did.

I suppose religion doesn't work for me simply because to me God isn't about a bunch of like minded people believing in 1 certain thing, and calling it the truth. To me a person's relationship with God is between them and God, period. I guess at the end of the day, Albert Einstein's observation sums up why religion doesn't work for me, " I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty." Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and an avid angler. He has more than 20 years experience fishing for all types of fish, and 15 years of business and internet experience. He currently raises his three year old daughter in the heart of trout fishing country.....Montana!

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