Damn, there is way too much to read in this thread. So, if something like this has been posted, I apologize.
I have had similar doubt as you Shogon, to the point that I became agnostic and then atheist. I was just fed up with the illogical nature of religion and 'God'. That was until I discovered a certain scientific theory, called the Omega Point theory.
The idea is that the entire universe is evolving. We're evolving towards a perfect being, aka God.
All of the things in the universe are, in essence, processing information. We're researching and learning about our own world.
Just over our lifespan, we've done amazing things. If you used some of our technology on a cave man, he'd think we ARE gods. If you continue that trend, and continue our advancement over millions and billions of years, eventually we (or whatever replaces us) will have complete control and knowledge over all matter.
Unfortunately, this most likely won't happen until the very last moments of our universe's lifespan. I'm going to give a VERY simple version to save
time.
Some scientists believe the universe will reach a certain point where it will begin collapsing back. As it does this, it has to condense itself, and the information inherent in the matter of the universe. At some point just before it will be completely collapsed, the information processing will reach an infinite state. It will be all powerful and all knowing, and then recreate itself. Because it's all knowing, it will already know all possible outcomes of the offspring universe.
I'm bastardizing it, as alot of it deals with high math and advanced scientific theories that I don't know. That's how it was explained to me by someone far more intelligent then I. But, here's a link if your into that stuff
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Omega/
Ok, so wtf does that mean.
It means that the universe is God. But, not the way the bible talks about him. At the moment of the universe's creation, God knew all possible paths that would happen. It does not mean He chose one specific path for our universe to follow, it means that he knew all of the possible outcomes that could ever happen (alternate time lines if you will). Human beings have 'free will' as the bible states, but it's only from our own perspective. If you choose to kill someone or not kill someone, it will have different consequences for YOU, but from God's standpoint it doesn't. He can see both choices and the resulting consequences, at all times, because he saw them before you ever made them.
Praying won't get God to change things for you. But, it may put something in the back of your mind, that makes you try to bring about that change on your own, subconsciously.
Basically, I believe in 'God', meaning an entity of some sort that is beyond our comprehension. I do not believe the story of the bible, or organized religion. I believe in being a good person because those things have consequences of their own, not because God is keeping a scorecard of your deeds, that results in going to Heaven or Hell. "Sorry, you missed Heaven by one point. Better luck next time.. oh.. wait.. your in their for eternity. Tough luck. Next!'