My thoughts on religion

I believe fully in my heart that there is a God. I believe that this God is all-powerful, and a hell of a lot smarter than any of us. He is sooooo smart, he realizes that the same version of himself wouldn't work for everyone. Because of this, he shows himself differently to different people. From the ancient greek pantheon, to the Christian God, to the Wiccan God and Goddess. I was raised as a Catholic, and that God is the one I relate to the most (Hence me referring to God as "HE"). That is not however to say I believe in the Catholic church, there is a huge difference between a religion and a church.

I bet that this God would happily accept any religion that more or less aligns with his beliefs. I believe he is a benevolent God that wants us to treat each other well. There used to be a sci-fi show on t.v. called Babylon 5, there is one quote from one episode that I remember from it that will probably be with me for the rest of my life. It went something like this: 
 

God created the universe, and he created rules for that universe to live by.
    For instance, the creation of the universe:  I'm sure you've heard that the Bible states that he created the world and everything on it in 6 days, and rested on the seventh.  On the other hand, scientists believe in the Big Bang and evolution.  Lets think of the Big Bang... At some point all the mass and energy in the universe was contained in one small super dense point that then goes on to explode, and produce the universe.  Doesn't sound very godly, huh?  Well how did all that Mass and energy get there?  There had to be something before that, and that was God.   And what is a day to God?  a month? a Year? a century?  a few million millenia?  Back to the Big Bang, a few billion years goes by... or maybe that's a God day or two... and there is this planet orbiting this star.  It's a barren planet, but God goes ahead and gives a couple small proteins sitting in a puddle of goo a zap of lightning, and life is born.  Then another couple God Days goes by, and that life evolves into  plants and animals, and ... people.  Maybe he gives them a bit of info, whispering in Mosses's ear, or giving Mohammed a vision, and then he goes off for his day of rest.  And god is still resting, that's why everything more or less works the way we expect it to.  Sure, the big guy might throw in something new here and there to keep us on our toes, but for the most part he's a hands-off guy.  I don't expect anything to change in my lifetime, God will probably keep resting right through the whole thing.

    Unfortunately, this particular view doesn't leave much room for miracles, magic(k), or the like.  That's a bummer, because I would like to believe in them, I just don't see how they would work.   But I'm no expert, show me concrete evidence, or come up with a reasonable explanation and I'm willing to believe.  Prove me wrong!

    I do find it easy to believe in energy healing, Reiki and stuff like that.  The human mind is an amazing thing.  If we believe in things enough, generally we can convince our own body to do stuff that it shouldn't.    We can walk accross fire, lift a car in an emergency, or allow a snake to bite us without ill effects as long as we believe in it enough.
    Unfortunatly, this can have negative effects as well.  I believe that a lot of what people call a miracle, is just the fact that they want to believe so much, it becomes real to them.