I was raised Jewish though more as a hobby than anything, not to sound crass. My parents asked me (mother's side is Jewish) whether I wanted to be Bar Mitzvah'ed when I was around 8-9 and I said:
'do I get presents?'
That sealed the deal for me, so I went through the process, it was interesting but I didn't learn much. Then when I was 17 we had a Rabbi who came to my school, so I'd go meet with the little Jew-group because I had nothing else to do. His take on the religion was quite profound, and I felt like it made a lot more sense than all the sacraments and other Christian stuff I had been reading about. He mostly talked about kindness to others and by embodying God's will by basically being kind and nice to everyone. None of the 'chosen people' nonsense, just mostly reading from modern Jewish scholars and authors about modern events and discussing a person's place in the world.
I've read some of the Quran, and mostly the Old Testament (duh.) I'm a VERY scientific person, sociology, biology, astronomy, whatever, it all fascinates me. It is utterly staggering to think about the universe and all that sometimes, especially reading that everything is supposed to IMPLODE (??) in 20 billion years. The one part I can't get over is what started it all, what caused the big bang, etc. Is there a higher power? Science tells me no, but it's the gaps in the story I'm worried about
C.