The thing is as well Cofty, those mental gymnastics, just like real gymnastics, are really painful.
Now, if you want to be an Olympic Gymnast, and there is a realistic chance of your achieving that, then fine, go through the pain, the tiredness from what is realy unnatural exercise, and the mental strain.
Go for it.
But why try to "find God" or whatever, the mental gymnastics required lead nowhere, and are simply painful.
Surely, if he really existed , and it was important that you got to know him or all about Him, and he was a loving God, surely he would not be hidden from you ? like an ever absent father ? Surely you would not have to try to make sense of strange writings from thousands of years ago ?
The sense of relief, and the feeling of freedom that comes from living in the real world is worth any fleeting imagined benefit from searching for a fictional character- God.
O.K we still have to struggle with difficult questions, I am at present trying to understand the sub-atomic world of Quantum mechanics, and how particles can be in two places at once, and can seem to "know" they are being "measured" and the other myriad weird aspects of that underlying part of the universe that seems to defy all logic.
But God does not enter in to it, he would simply impede my understanding, and I would not be as comfortable as I am with the unexplained (so far unexplained, Science will probably reveal a lot more in the coming days and years)
God and the Bible are best put where they belong, on the Fiction Shelves of your Library.
You can then move forward to learn all about reality, and things that may be, or may not be, without prejudice, and the blinkers that religious thought puts upon you.
