I was raised in church until I was about 11, we were mormon, my Mom taught Sunday school, I was in the choir. We were poor, just getting by, and my Mom went to the elders to ask for a blessing, she was pretty down, wanted to hear some comforting words. They told her to get her tithing up to date and then ask for a blessing. We left. I had no contact with religion again until I joined the military, went to a few services, non denominational, felt good. I did not take root though. I remembered the old days, I still remember my baptism when I was young. One day, not long after joining the military a guy I kind of knew took me to another guys house, we talked about various things I forget now, after a while they looked at each other and one said "think he can handle it?" I was a little apprehensive but then they brought out this huge blue book. They told me they got it at an airport for 20 bucks, it was high quality hard cover, and even back in the 70's this was no 20 dollar book. So, as I am examining it, I read over the table of contents, the first part was all about God, then there was a section on the Lucifer rebellion, a section on Evolution, life on other planets, Adam and Eve. A lot of stuff. The fourth section was the Life of Jesus. I was curious so I wrote down the publisher address because there was no contact info except that. I went overseas shortly after that and one day I wrote to the address with a letter telling them that I was told the book was 20 bucks and a 20 dollar bill. It actually came to me in Spain. I found out later the real price was 50, mind you I paid no shipping and the book is a few pounds, it also came with no pamphlets or literature about any church or organization. The first part used a lot of big words in ways I was not used to, it made my head hurt a bit trying to understand as they tried to explain God, the trinity, a bunch of stuff you never heard of, So i started skipping around, reading about Adam and Eve,not even close to the genesis version, The Lucifer rebellion, his big sin was denying the existence of God, seems the universal structure is a bit more complex than Heaven, Earth, God, Jesus and Devil. Eventually I read about the life of Jesus. It was all there, the birth, the childhood, the time as an adult before his ministry started, all the way through the Resurrection. It was like watching it all over his shoulder. A lot of the 4 gospels matches, but it is like the extended cut DVD, many more details. It left me loving Jesus more than I ever had, and understanding him and why a lot of things were the way they happened. It also made me realize the old Testament is pretty much just a history of the Jewish tribe. They were the main monotheistic people of the time, it was a ripe place to plant the seed. Ever notice how Yahweh was not quite the same guy as the God Jesus spoke of? No more doom and gloom, all of a sudden it was about love and forgiveness? In the book Jesus talks about it a bit, saying the Jews found god in their mind, but not in their spirit. It was still a major step in the right direction, remember the Romans still worshiped a double handful of Gods at this time. The book also explained that this is an evolutionary planet by design, life was brought here by God's command, it did not randomly start. Is the book true? All I can say is I got a lot more out of reading the life of Jesus than I ever got out of church or the bible. There is no human author listed. It has been almost 40 years now since I got my copy, it is online for free these days at Urantia,org. It was published in the 50's, a couple of the evolutionary chain claims it made have become accepted knowledge since then, like dinosaurs/birds, and another that escapes me at the moment, and it talks about space, a lot of information. It has no religion, it is only billed as revelation.