I salute your bravery, looking at and investigating those troubling questions that arise in a faith-filled brain.

The comments here demonstrate some of the feelings shared by the freethinkers on this site, many of them having made the difficult, but so very worthwhile, journey into enlightenment from the grip of faith memes.

I could recommend many books that would help you clarify the areas you are rightly concerned about. Apart from the well known authors, including the wonderful and interconnected writings of Professor Dawkins, there are other less known but valuable books explaining what faith is, how it emerged, evolved and is spread, and what it does to humans - who are all born as innocent, information-seeking, non-theists.

A recent on-line purchase by me from RichardDawkins.net Store was: The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture, published in 2009, for US$15.95. Author is Darrel W. Ray Ed.D.

I hope you find many ways of curing, and vaccinating yourself against, these dangerous mind infections.

I wish you the best on your journey to being a fully functioning adult, without those big religious blinkers restricting your view of this wonderful existence, in the one life we are all fortunate to have.