Just a thought...

Some thoughts on religion that I had...
Be aware, there are some pretty abrasive things said in here. And I encourage you to read from start to finish before commenting. I'll try to include as many points from what I quote as possible.

Anyways, so here. 

The more of the bible I read, the more I wonder what book modern Christians are reading. 
Clearly not the bible. 
I was reading an argument recently a friend of mine happened to troll - you know who you are - and this girl was going absolutely ballistic over a person "cussing", as well as snapping at him about there being one God and one God only. She sounded like a moron after about two-sentences, but it got me thinking. 
Its come to my attention that most people who open an argument with "The bible says..." actually have no idea what the bible outlines. The Lord's name is the only foul language the bible lists as -entirely- inappropriate. The rest is more clearly outlined, stating that you are not to curse at others. To curse your fellow man, made in God's likeness and such. Which means saying shit and piss instead of defecate and urinate is largely okay, but you're not allowed to call a guy a wanker or a fuck-nut, no matter how bad his driving. And if we're going to be completely honest about taking the Lord's name in vain, God is a word, not a name. We don't know God's true name, so by that reasoning, we can't really take his name in vain. What if his name is Waffle, or Ducan, or Pickle-poop or something, and millions of people are going to Hell for saying they're going to Waffle House, or they're tired of someone waffling over a decision? 
Also, in case you didn't know, oh supposed readers of the holy writ, God's name is listed as unpronounceable. I understand not in the King James Version, but if you're going to use facts, be sure to use them from all literature regarded as religious fact, yes? They use the tetragrammaton, the Hebrew word for God, consisting of the four letters yod, he, vav, and he, transliterated consonantally usually as YHVH, formerly Yahweh, now pronounced as Adonai or Elohim in substitution for the original pronunciation forbidden since the 2nd or 3rd century b.c., so no one knows God's name and therefore, can't actually use it in any manner, let alone in vain. And let's not even get into the burning bush story and how God refers to himself as "I AM" so that when the Pharoah asks Moses "Who is your God" Moses CONVENIENTLY gets to respons "I AM". Only blind belief in something you've never actually read allows you to ignore the fact that a human man just told the ruler of Egypt that he was his own God. Hello.
And the one God and one God only thing? How retarded, illiterate or otherwise ignorant do you have to be not to know that argument is flawed? Its mentioned numerous times in the bible that there are other Gods.
To name a few:
Astroloth - Judges 2:13, Samuel 7:3-4
Baal - 2 Samuel 2:8; 1 Kings 17:1, 18:17-19; 2 Kings 1:2-5; Jeremiah 9:13-16; Hoseah2:2-13, 14-22
Baal-zebul - 2 Kings 1:2-5
Bel - Isaiah 46:1-4 (also in apochraphal chapters removed from Daniel)
Beelzebul - Mark 3:22
Chemosh - Numbers 21:29, Judges 11:24
"Day Star" and Dawn - Isaiah 14:12-15
Hadad-rimmon - Zechariah 12:11
Ishtar - Jeremiah 44:15-28
Marduk - Jeremiah 50:2-3
Milkom - 2 Samuel 12:30
Nabu - Isaiah 46:1-4
Sakkuth and Kaiwan - Amos 5:26
Tammuz - Isaiah 17:9-11; Ezekiel 8:14-18; Daniel 11:36-39
No where does it say that there suddenly aren't other Gods. The only thing it notes is that you're only allowed to worship one God and have no other God before him. That doesn't somehow magically eradicate from existence the other Gods mentioned in the Bible that existed before Christianity. And saying the power of Christian belief somehow slayed the other Gods is like saying the the religion with the most followers wins. So by that logic, as Islamic religion swells its numbers, are Christians going to shut up and back down when Islam overtakes Christianity, thereby effectively slaying the Christian heathen God? Because let's remember, Christianity isn't even the oldest religion, its just one of the most contradictory and brutal. Thou shalt not kill apparently only applies to other Christians, and even then, its questionable. Exhibit A being the Crusades. "Its cool if you do it in the name of God". Well, by that token, we can't argue with Islamic extremists who knock off a few hundred people here and there, now can we? 
So then there's the who God is infallible, God never makes mistakes thing. 
Well, okay, I'll agree with that. Something well beyond our capacity to understand, that presumably created all life on Earth and possibly beyond, depending on what Christian extremist crap you like to believe, probably doesn't have the tiny human intellect necessary for something as common as a mistake. A creation faux pas. However, if that's to be believed, then you have to accept that the Bible is a load of hooey. Since, you know, God says one thing in the Old Testament, but then he COMPLETELY changes his mind, in the New Testament. Providing you adhere to belief in both, and not one or the other, because again, there's that fancy Christian ability to believe what's convenient for you. So in that, God goes from hellfire and brimstone, floods, pillars of salt and destroying entire cities in a fit of pique - and don't get me started about how a God shouldn't have human emotions and thereby be able to get 'angry' - to happy, tra-la-la, I'm a family man, got myself a son and we're gonna have picnics and save humanity. 
All through the Old Testament, God was content to slap us around and zap the mess out of us for the silliest things. We were given the freedom to choose, but to be punished constantly if we didn't choose the things he liked? And then all of a sudden, what, he changes his mind? Getting a little soft around the middle, doddering around heaven and tired of chasing the whipper snappers, he decides he's going to stop being an abusive parent and turn over a new leaf, go all New Age hippy and spread peace and good will? So what, either God makes mistakes, or he's not much of a -God- since he's obviously the victim of bi-polar disorder, or perhaps he's just really confused? 
Ah, but a God is above mortal concern and compassion, above anger and resentment, and cannot experience things as easily defined as charity and love. If God does not make mistakes, then again, by that token, how does any Christian have the right to question anything God does? Like allow deformed babies to be born, or allow religious extremists to bomb peaceful villages. 
If its all in God's plan, then the people presumably going to Hell are the ones going against everything he previously dictated. But if its all in God's plan, why does he makes rules to the contrary of the things happening? If we were given free choice, then why did he give us rules, that we cannot disobey without being punished? Wherein, then, is the "choice"? We can choose to obey or disobey? So, God is not a compassionate God, but a cruel dictator? So then, he's the Old Testament God? So do we follow Old Testament rules or New Testament rules? So after a HUGE mess of text and a lot of babbling, what I mean to say is that real psycho holy-rollers piss me off, because they stand against the love and peace God and Jesus stand for in the New Testament, but when you throw Old Testament stuff in their face about executing women that aren't virgins when they're married ( Deuteronomy ), or forcing women to marry their rapists ( Deuteronomy ), or it being against God for men to have long hair or women to uncover their heads or braid their hair ( 1 Corinthians ), they proceed to point out that its the Old Testament, and we don't live by those rules anymore. 
So, does that include the Ten Commandments? That's in the OLD TESTAMENT, you know. In case you've been reading your bible and all.
Of course maybe I missed the part where Exodus was moved to the New Testament. 
You can't pick and choose what you get to use. That's not how it works, according to your fancy book. 
SO! 
Since its convenient for Christians of today to live by their own personally tailored versions of the religion, how about I give my own observation - since I rather like it and it seems more exciting to me.

God didn't write the bible, a bunch of men did. This much is obvious, since God probably doesn't own a desk and has no use for pens, or quills, or whatever they used back then.
Some prophets and apostles, a handful of scholars, probably some good guys, probably some sinners, but in the end, just men wrote the book. So its not really holy writ, its just a collection of stories. 
Unless you can set it on fire or shoot it, and it proves to be impervious to all destructive attempts, its not all that special. Just a book that most people never read, but happens to sell more copies than most any other book written, so good on the authors, since they'd be what, trillionaires by now? 
Anyways, a lot of Gods existed or exist. Maybe only one, maybe none. Maybe God is too simple, too human a word, to describe something indescribable. 
A vast, fathomless creative consciousness that created man. 
Not for any particular reason, not with any goal in mind, but simply because its purpose is to create. 
It created the heavenly host, and in order to keep its creations from causing too much trouble for one another, it created a means of frightening the more unruly ones into behaving: Hell. But of course, this place needed a face - a poster child - that mortal minds could readily identify, and so this consciousness referred to as a God - not the God, but a God, since by this point mortals see God in everything and don't know where to direct all of their worshiping - chooses one of its most devoted heavenly host, and charges it with the unwelcome task of administering punishment. This figurehead - referred to as Lucifer - willingly descends from on high, not as a cast-out, but because it was chosen for this task by its creator. 
Else why the defiance mortals tell stories about? 
Man was given free choice. No where in the Christian religion is it directly referenced that 'angels' were created with the same lack of restraint in mind. We commit acts of sin because we’re first of all sinners by nature, “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1). But angels, created individually, did not inherit a sinful nature as we did. Therefore, Lucifer didn't start a fight with dad and run away from home. And since even in my version, 'God' doesn't make mistakes, then it means no 'angel' would get in trouble. They're the ultimate servants of the consciousness that is God. Lucifer isn't a bad guy. He's just a satisfying target for mortals who don't want to admit that the reason that they do wrong is because they choose to. That's inconvenient. Its much more convenient to say the Devil made me do it. The Devil tempted me and I was weak. So on and so forth. 
In reality, the only evils on earth are perpetuated by man, as it is we and we alone that have freedom of choice. 
Lucifer is tasked with containing and punishing the wicked souls until such time as the consciousness, or Holy Spirit if you will, has dictated all things shall end. In the meanwhile, man chooses to do good or evil. 
As he evolves, he creates truly good things, like Yeshua ben Yosef - the real name of Jesus since the letter J didn't exist in Aramaic, in case you didn't know - and truly evil things. 
Without a means of explaining great evils done by men that wasn't attached to their perceived notions of good and evil, they created devils and demons in much the same way crocodiles and whales were once dragons and Leviathans. Terrible things like floods and monsoons, dust storms, meteor fall, lightning, were all natural acts that early man was afraid of. And as death was attributed to darkness and evil, and these acts caused death, they were the result of an angry God. 
If you look at it from the perspective of God being only a compassionate figure, and insist on there being a corrupting, evil influence, then God is always compassionate, and never did things to kill its creations. Which means the Devil had to be the one doing everything mean and nasty in the Old Testament. 
As for miracles? The power of human will is often a terrifying thing indeed. God doesn't have to interfere, humanity is quite capable of providing alarming, often miraculous results on its own. 
So the Old Testament is ignorant early man, frightened by events he can't explain, unable to count because apparently people lived hundreds of years back then, and obviously confused about reality. The New Testament is more modern man, enlightened, understanding the difference between natural and celestial. 
However, as man grows, he also acknowledges that miracles aren't really God, and natural disasters aren't either. Unfortunately, when man begins to realize God isn't directly interacting all the time, and never really was, he loses more sight of the truth. And he develops more unique, and more incorrect, beliefs. It will be many centuries before he's enlightened again, and able to understand the definitions of the words he created. To know the difference between God and man. Because the lines get blurred. And while God creates, so too does man, and so man must be God? 
Eventually God loses his place in the hearts of men. And the day will come, when the ticket gets punched, and God decides its time to end everything. There are enough bad souls to recycle. However, it is in God's very nature to create, not to destroy. Which suggests the Devil will come to destroy everything. However, the devil isn't Lucifer, who is good and devoted and busy running the cesspool full of evil, because God created Lucifer, and God created Hell, and God created the first jobs, because someone had to be the CEO of the Underworld. 
God creates. 
Which means when the end comes, it will be all man's doing. His choice. Because God created free choice. And everything is in God's plan. When it all ends, and man destroys himself, God takes everything up, dusts it off and starts over, creating a new world and a new race. 
Souls, which are as ethereal as the Holy Spirit, the consciousness that created all things, don't go to Heaven afterwards. Since they are eternal, as defined by most religions, they return to become part of whatever new thing God creates. They have no shape or form that can be defined by man's weak grasp of words, as they were made in the image of God, and God cannot be described or defined. Eternity is infinity, which means a cycle, a circle, or loop. Creation leading back to creation. God creates man in order to create man again. And again. And again. But there is no purpose behind it that we will ever understand, because we are mortal, and mortals are not Gods, however much they like to pretend. 
Only the arrogant believe they will ever rise to a level on par with God. 
It is man's most ultimate arrogance to assume that what we look like on the outside defines what God is, and that we might some day walk with God in his kingdom. What use has God for a kingdom and a throne? All of it is metaphor, and if it isn't, then its ignorance, because there is no magical city where people walk around in a state of perpetual bliss. Whatever lies beyond is indescribable and utterly inhuman. Beyond the understanding of mortals. Only a soul, free of the shackles of flesh, can ascend, and a soul is not human, it is a piece of the consciousness that eventually returns to the whole. Humans cease to exist after death. All the wicked souls are the souls tainted by the choices man made. Souls that have to be purged, a task given to Lucifer. And when the end comes, all souls return to the consciousness, only to be used again in new creation. 
That part of us, that holy part of us, is the part of God within us that we have a choice to treat as a gift. If we taint it, we deal with the consequences of our actions, not punished by God or the Devil, but by our fellow man. Because inside, that piece of us that is ultimately good guides us to right action. Right views, right speech, right livelihood. Every man, woman and child across every nation, regardless of their religion, regardless of the social caste or government dictate, has a strong moral center, guided by that tiny piece of holiness inside. That is why in every place in the world, even among people raised in entirely different ways, there are people who acknowledge right and wrong for what it really is. There are people who ignore outdated sets of rules in outdated books, and do what they know is right because it is right, not what is wrong because someone tells them it is right. 
We as a people are inherently good, but we choose to do evil. On occasion, perhaps the Holy Spirit sends us messages, warnings, curious prods. The mentally ill, the infirm, the deformed and the different. These things aren't evil. God creates nothing evil. God is Good. He creates these things as tests of our own goodness. We are, as a people, defined by how we treat things not like ourselves, and how we treat ourselves. We fail constantly to do good as a whole because we choose, in our weakness, to do wickedness upon others and ourselves. How we treat those of another ethnicity, how we approach other religions, how we regard our social minorities, or our anomalies. These things are constantly watched. We degrade ourselves and the gift of goodness inside of us, when we judge and we persecute and we try to label things that hold no bearing on a person's ability to be good and kind as wrong. 
When we treat homosexuality as a greater sin than child molestation, what does that say about us? When religion becomes a means of dictating freedom of choice, after centuries of crawling towards a place where religion itself is the choice and not the rule, where do people draw lines? When cultural leaders let their religion dictate the choices they make on behalf of others that do not share their religions, where is the freedom? 
We no longer drift to and fro, puzzling over things not easily defined. We are, it seems, rushing headlong into our own destruction, forgetting all the lessons we learned, ignoring the persistent warnings and careful nudging of our Creator. A being neither benevolent nor malevolent. Something that simply -is-, reminding us that we are finite, reminding us that we choose when we cease to be, and that if we want to remain, we ought to be more careful in how we treat that spark inside of us, given to us as a gift, as a piece of the Light and holiness, that thing that makes us, in our own small way, divine.

That is what I believe, though it evolves constantly. And I never ask anyone to believe it with me. Nor do I ever force anyone to believe it, demand anyone to believe it, suggest anyone is going to Hell if they don't believe it. By that very token, my personal religion is better than most forms of Christianity. My religion accepts all things, all people, and demands nothing more of anyone, than for them to be good, and honor themselves and others with right living.

ANYWAYS! That was my thought for the evening. In closing - I dislike holy-rollers that say they're quoting the bible, when really they're just quoting themselves, or their pastors or priests or whatever, and have never actually read everything for themselves, then presume to tell me what is right and wrong, when they themselves can't even decide which chapter they're going to follow. I have about as much respect for blind, factless evangelists as I do for people who believe they are their role-play characters. The only difference between the two is that a very small percentage of the world plays Dungeons and Dragons or World of Darkness, but millions of people play Christianity.
Recently I saw something that very acutely describes my feelings on the matter.
It said: "Most Christians treat the bible the same way people treat online user agreements. Instead of reading it, they just scroll down to the bottom and click accept."