As a teenager I was greatly interested in science and Darwin’s work intrigued me. One day I plucked up enough courage to knock on the minister’s door (I went to the Congregational Church—mostly because of the girls in their youth group) and asked him how he reconciled evolution and the bible. He told me that evolution was nonsense and slammed the door in my face. For the next few months I sat in the balcony. analysed his sermons, dismissing his logic and became an atheist. This was in 1948.
Twenty-five years later I had a “revelation.” I was about to cross Commonwealth Avenue (I was taking a degree at Boston University) when the theory I had concocted for myself suddenly became “true.” The “revelation”—I don’t know what else to call it—was overwhelming, numerous ideas flashed through my mind, each accompanied by a trail of coloured lights, like brightly-sparkling rockets. I couldn’t move for what may have been two or perhaps ten minutes. I eventually crossed the road and went to my room and sat. “What should I do now” I asked myself. “Stop my degree work and proselytise?”
It took me two or three weeks to decide that my family and it’s future was most important. Thus I would get the degree and return to teaching but, I promised myself, I would write a book about my “theory” when I retired.
It took me about ten years to sort and research, eventually deciding to write the book for my grandchildren. It might help them to sort through their ideas when they began thinking about religions, purpose and meaning in life. For, although the book is called Developing a Universal Religion: Why one is Needed and How it might be Developed I remain an atheist yet it seems that humanity needs a belief of some kind, one that helps us make moral decisions. And, today, with globalization and religions fighting each other, a universal religion that communities (not necessarily individuals) accept and adhere to, might be just what we need.
Well, each grandchild has a copy but only one, I think, has read it. (He told his Jewish friend that he was a “Meta” when asked what he believed in!)
I self-published and sold about a hundred copies, then put it on Wikibooks (where several others have modified it) then on Smashwords, as a free book. Some 3,500 copies have been downloaded. Perhaps someone, one day, might take the ideas further. Not me, it’s too much work and I haven’t the energy.

I’ve written a novel about a retired widower, living in the south of England, who forms a company with another man to make wooden toys, something he used to do as a hobby. The company grows, he takes his first holiday in Europe and meets a travel agent. I’ll put it on Smashwords when the revisions are finished.

All the best to you. David.