There's a great quote from Ramakrishna. I can't remember the whole thing but it goes something along the lines of...Religions are merely paths to God and it's important not to confuse the path with what's at the end. People tend to get caught up in the religion and forget what they're seeking. He goes on to say that religions are a cultural phenomena, that Buddhists should follow the teachings of the Buddha, Christians should follow Christ and Hindus the Aryan veddas. My spiritual beliefs are based on decades of research, not on faith (although I do have faith). I tried atheism (Humanism) and I found it to be lacking...it's pretty dishonest, just behaviors stolen from different spiritual teachings. Most of the atheists I've met were just people that hate God (how can you hate something that doesn't exist?). I do, however, hold to many Deist principles. God created everything (employing the laws of physics) and turned it over to man to manage...I think we made it to page 3 of the Bible before we started fucking up!