You sound very bitter. I am a very successful man who retired at the age of 52. Prior to retirement, I raised 30 children. At age 60, I still have four of them living at home. Three are in college and one just wants to live here. I am a man of strong faith who was raised by an atheist/agnostic four times married alcoholic father. (It depended upon how drunk he was to determine if he was an agnostic [know nothing] or an atheist [no God].)
I set out on my own in life during my Freshman year in high school, but still graduated. I was an atheist/agnostic like my father. I ended up with a B- minus grade point average because most of my time after school was spend trying to make a living. Subsequently I never did homework. That B- was just good enough to be one person below the midpoint in my high school class. I proudly brag that I finished in the bottom half of my class. Yet, I had the highest SAT score in that class.
I spent the next six years traveling the world before I started asking questions about the nature of things and started college in my mid twenties. After asking enough questions I realized that there had to be a God. I have been a Christian ever since the 13th of February 1974, the day I asked God into my life to teach me and help me along life's complicated journey.
There is a God. I do not argue small points about God as that is a foolish waste of time, but I know that God exists and calls all men to a closer walk with him. God also calls all men to a standard of morality that most can not reach on their own. If you seek God, you will find that capacity.
I applaud your success .. you sound like a good man and I make no personal attack on what you believe nor what you have discovered about you during your life's journey.
However, I do challenge the notion that one needs God, any God to be successful. I honestly appreciate your perspective my brother, but "success", like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Hard to be considered more "successful" than someone like Howard Hughes. But would I have wanted his life? .. absolutely not. All kinds of demons running around in his head .. died terrified of things as big as a microbe. What an idiot.
Point being is that money, business, fame, and title are measures of success that break people. I'm not suggesting they aren't worthy of attaining, I'm suggesting they aren't the only measure of success .. and, no matter where you go .. there you are. Where you go, rich or poor, your demons go with you. The very same can be said of if you're religious or not .. evidenced by a history of religious leaders and followers who still couldn't control their demons. Evidenced by an entire history of innocent people who've died under the boot of religion.
Faith my brother, no matter what semantics you use to describe it, comes down to belief in something you do not know to be true. If it was true it wouldn't require faith, it would be fact. Respectfully, religion requires faith because it does not have fact.
I grew up in a christian home and not only attended church, but at 13, I was the boy wonder who could preach a sermon that would have people jumping up prasing God. I was so good at it that my church would put up cardboard advertisements on telephone poles and in the beauty and barber shops in the neighborhoods where they took me around to preach his holy word. I was good at it, but there was no special calling .. I did it because it pleased my mother. She was more proud of my Elmer Gentry character than she was about my grades in school. My problem with christianity came when I started to actually study its history, and by 15 I was done with it .. didn't care how much my mother liked it. I'm not christian, but I know more christian history that most christians because they never actually study it. Most people's religion is inherited. They are what their parents are/were. Religion is highly dependent on environment. If you were born in Iran you would probably be muslim .. if you were born in India you would probably be Hindu
At 15 I started reading J. Krishnamurti and "Think on These Things" opened my eyes to clarity. Success for me brother is the inner peace that comes with clarity. Success for me has been working and living in different places in the US and experiencing different perspectives. Success has been watching my children grow, getting my black belt and knowing my sensei, a small powerful man from Okinawa who I will never see again. It's getting a degree and the pursuit of education and knowledge. It's been working my way up the IT ladder and becoming a DBA .. having my own business free of the stress of the corporate world and being able to do it from home most days.
But just as importantly, success has been the recognition of my social responsibilities and giving my talents back to the community. It's been being able to accomplish just about everything I had the will to accomplish in spite of the challenges this society throws in my way .. and it's been learning the lessons of humility.
"Bitter" .. not me brother. I died last year .. March 19, 2007 to be exact. Stroke .. hemorragic seizure .. no heartbeat .. no pulse .. stopped breathing. Even when I was revived I stayed unconscious for four days. I'm not bitter in the least because you aren't talking to a ghost. What I am is a believer of seeking truth, no matter what truth reveals. What I am is someone who is unencumbered by things one is supposed to say and/or believe .. and I relish in that freedom .. sometimes I get drunk with it. Seriously, it is a powerful emotion.
What I am is spiritual, nor religious .. they are not the same thing. I don't care about labels, only the character of the person wearing it.
I don't think you're a good person because you're christian brother, I think you're a good person because of your character.