*Disclaimer: Not trying to piss people off, just trying to answer some questions and being some ideas to the table
The Lord chooses to reveal only the things to you that you need to know. Obviously, you've read things in the Bible that seemed like riddles, but have you ever read anything in any given book that truely clicks with you? In the Bible, only certain things may make sense to you, and this is because you must believe and love Him to fully understand what He is saying. Jesus answers this questiona as to why he speaks in riddles in Matthew 13:9-11:
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given
The books of the Bible by no means applaude rape and incest and murder infact, they are outlined in commandments number 6
Thou shalt not commit adultry(which includes infidelity, rape, incest, homosexuality, pre-marital sex and pedophilia), and number 5
Thou shalt not murder
You say that the commandments are a set of rules to make drones out of people, but they are really a way to show us just how evil and corrupt we are. Jesus says if we hate another man, we haved commited murder in our hearts Matthew 5:21-22
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mathew 5&version=NKJV . The 10 commandments were put in place to show us just how much we fail before the Lord, not that if we follow them we'll have eternal life. Even more so, it is impossible to follow them. The commandments in Exodus are only 10 of 600+ throughout the Bible. Jesus came so that we could claim Him as our sin offering to completely clean us of our iniquity. Some say tha because of this we could just run around chopping eachother's heads off because our sins will be forgiven. This is true,
BUT after you're saved, you have no desire to hurt your Father. The best way I can put this is if your SO gave you a free ticket to go out and cheat on him/her as much as you wanted, would you do it? In my own case, I would not want to because I love my Fiance too much to hurt him like that even if I knew I would be forgiven. It's the same way with God. After He's come into your life you don't want to hurt Him because you love Him. Just a little tangent here: Many say that salvation is by works; that if you do good things that you can go to heaven. However, if you follow this reasoning, the bad grossly outnumbers the good you do in your life. Then people will ask why believers even go out and do good things if their salvation is guarenteed? It's because God changes our hearts to servants' hearts, that
want to serve Him, not because we think we're saved by it.
Please read this article about halfway down nder the heading Objections and sub heading Biological Deformities:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/nab/who-was-cains-wife
If people only belive because they were brainwashed as children, then what about those of us who were saved as adults/young adults? Before I was saved I wasn't afraid of death; in fact I was suicidal. I had my own ideas between right and wrong; society gave them to me, I didn't need help understanding. And I question your definition on "free-thinking". Wouldn't that be opposit of what society is saying? Society tells me that I'm a distant relative to a primate, that Homosexuality is fine, that emotionally abusing your children isn't that bad, that cheating on your wife is common-place, marriage is ment to be broken, and yet believers are said to be conformist. Wouldn't we be better classified as "free-thinkers"? I grew up in a family of Atheists, aren't I a "Free-thinker" for opposing what my family and friends believe?
When has praying to a person ever paid off? Can a stranger know all of your thoughts and feelings? Can a stranger know you better than yourself? Jesus teaches that all men fall flat when trying to obtain perfection. My birth mother volunteers in a drug rehabilitation center, and yet she physically and emotionally beat me growing up. A person will never be able to live up to your expectations, and will never be able to save you 100% of the time, no matter what good things they may do.
You're right, religion is used to elevate people, to rip them off and cause pain. Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and the temple changers multiple times in the Bible, (
http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=pharisees&qs_version=NKJV) because following a religion is not what He wants for your life--He wants a relationship with you, He wants you to know Him so that you can trust Him.
I'm glad you asked these questions, it made us all think and I hope I was able to scrape the surface of the answers to them. For the record, these questions don't scare the crap out of me, they're what bring me closer to God. I hope they at least made you think :) I will pray for you, but not because it will make me look good, but because you're a fellow mopar brother, and I care about all of you. Sorry don't have the aircleaner, got a 69 val grille laying around?