Now into my seventh decade, I've spent many long years trying to come to terms with religion. We are all shaped to a large extent by our experiences. In my case, the serious questions began around age eight. That was when I was presented with one of those glossy full colour bible books. On one page a benevolent Jesus was smiling and patting a child's head. A couple pages further on, however, there was a chilling message: obey the word of God, or roast in hell forever.

Much later, as a Canadian soldier serving in Europe during the cold war, I saw the vast treasures of the Vatican. The next lasting image came when driving through a poverty stricken village in southern Italy. Local residents where emerging out of hovels to collect water from the village well. Up on the hill however, among perfectly manicured lawns, stood the local priest's up-market residence.

When anyone turns against religion, the first reaction is usually anger. After spending nine years in the military, I can empathise with many Australian war veterans who are angry with the church for various reasons. Perhaps it has something to do with getting shot at in the name of several questionable causes, many of them influenced, if only indirectly, by religious attitudes.

In any event, I was inspired to find out why our world is in such a sorry mess. H.G. Wells' "Outline of History" has been a useful reference, along with Bertrand Russell's "A History of Western Philosophy" and many others. The end result is this website and this book.

So do I have any scientific or philosophical qualifications to bring to bear on this epic? The short answer is no, as was so gleefully pointed out by the book reviewer of a major atheist organisation when he said: "He presents no credentials whatever except that he has previously written some books on finances!"

This attitude would have made it difficult for Spinosa to gain traction as a philosopher since he was only a spectacle grinder. And how about the effrontery of a lowly patent office clerk like Einstein to write about relativity?

This is mentioned, not to compare myself to these famous gentlemen (which would be extreme hubris) but to demonstrate the organisational mind set of the reviewer. Surely it is the quality or otherwise of the written word which is important, not its author, or the number of letters after their name.

Actually, I do have two things that Plato considered necessary for a proper study of philosophy: freedom from the worry of having to make a living, and adequate time to pursue studies.

Having seven financial books published may rate only a dismissive snort from this reviewer, but it did teach me how to write for a general audience. A diploma in urban land economics and a career in electronics also taught me something about logic. In any event, I leave it to the reader to judge my efforts.