ok to the first part, yeah i can't imagine a huge guy looking at some crystal ball, poking his finger in everynow and then. i actually imagine him as some kid who was given like a packet of sea monkeys, he added life and stuff to this little ball, played with it for a while, then put it in a box and forgot about it. maybe even moved house and left it behind? who knows, but if he was here i certainly don't think he is now.
and second, no swearing cos our parents said so, thats all i remember. but their reason invovled god.
I can't imagine it even as that. Giving the Ultimate (or God, Allah, what you will) a consciousness (in the sense that we understand) it immediately places limits upon Him. To place limits upon something that is ultimate and infinite is irrational from the beginning.
If you have some leanings towards Eastern traditions, it may be helpful for you to try to pull the idea of God away from some of the language we use to describe Him (which even I tend to obscure with my use of "He," but sometimes we fall into habits for sake of tradition). Instead of a thinking being that planning all of creation, imagine instead the common roots that all things share - from participation in the universe down to atomic structure. Buddhism in particular teaches to look into the emptiness of things to discover their true nature. This is not a sympathy for nihilism or a denial of existence per se, but rather an acknowledgment that the human mind divides up the universe in order to understand it, and that to gain TRUE insight, one must move beyond those classifications.
Think of it this way: in biology we learn how to classify all walks of life. We learn what things are and are not through comparison with others. We, as beings, name and divide and organize everything under the sun and at some point we seem to think that all things really are entirely different and have no commonalities. At the heart of all major world religions I think you will find that this conclusion is revolted against.
I ask my Buddhist brothers and sisters to forgive my very elementary understanding of this topic, but I think it might prove somewhat useful, if shallow:
Imagine the human body. It is a whole but is made up of many systems - circulatory, respiratory, nervous, so on. Take a look at any one of those systems. The skeletal system is made of a collection of bones. Those bones themselves are composed of a complex set of chemicals, but principally calcium. Look at calcium, it has an atomic structure: protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks and so on to the point where science has yet to fully describe it all. One can look at any object and dive down so deeply that the original object grows empty of its own being - what we call a "bone" is a formation of calcium. What we call "calcium" is itself simply a formation of atoms. Looking at the atom, can you see the bone?
When you get to the bottom of all that, what do you have left?
Again, this is in
no way an argument that nothing exists and that life is pointless - it is, in fact, just the opposite. It is aimed at helping us see that through all these distinctions we make (white, black; American, English; right, wrong; man, woman; Outlaw, TribalWarrior; so on) there is something that underlies it all, from which we come and to which we shall return.
When men divide themselves for almost any reason whatsoever (and they are legion) pride and distrust grow. Remembering this underlying unity is the key to universal love - Christ's message (and that of Muhammad and the Buddha, when read properly).
It may be helpful for you to look to God in that light. The heart of the bible is a guide for dropping some of these distinctions and embracing our unity. To read it literally is to misunderstand it entirely. Much of it is meant metaphorically, some of it is written within a context and quite meaningless when removed from that context. Leviticus speaks of the evil of consuming shellfish and pork, two things that seem absurd when removed from religion. At the time, however, meat preparation was not of high standard and there were precious few ways to preserve food, meaning poisoning and trichinosis were at high risk. The rules protected people's health during that age but are somewhat useless to us today and so carry no moral weight.
In some sense that is what your parents' ban on swearing reflects. Tp curse is not an affront to God, but it shows a disrespect for those around you and is usually done in rage - two things which demonstrate a lack of love for others. This lack of love distances one from the ultimate and so that is why they banned you from doing it.
And look at that. I'm getting all preachy again. I hope you got through that, Stranger, and that at least a little bit was helpful to you.