On God

So, I've been an atheist most of my life. I thank my parents for that. Now that I've come of age, I finally realize how entrenched religion is in our everyday lives, and frankly it maddens me.
I'm sick of religion being something that nobody can talk about. So, let's have at it... who's with me? Who's against me? Why?
O.K., very well, I'll start.

Here's the caveat to the whole thing though... don't come up in this house and quote the bible until you're blue in the face. The Bible may be the world's best seller, but it's corrupt. It wasn't written by the people involved in the stories and has been translated over eleventy times to date. That's right, eleventy. Google that.

So, without this old book that tells of gardens and snakes and women being born of ribs, where are you? Still have an argument? Please, let's hear it. We're all waiting.

Here's a point I often wrestle with:
Why, in God's infinite wisdom, did he create a world where 2000+ religions exist? Why did he allow us to get so far down the path of having religions like Islam, where men and women who are devout beyond belief to a God other than him/her that they strap explosives to themselves and blow up his followers? How sick is your God if he's letting this happen? Don't tell me about some "divine plan" and how "[I] can't possibly understand it". There is no good reason to allow the creation of a world where only 33% of the people will be saved.

Also, why did he wait so long to "beget" a son? I mean, he let the romans and greeks worship sun gods and gods of war for thousands of years. Then, he decided out of the blue to beget a son by way of a virgin in a town called Bethlehem. Why wait so long? What happens to the people who died before our boy Jesus got all popular? Are the saggy-boobed Amazonians damned for eternity? That's not cool. They didn't even have the chance to see a bible.

So, come on! Bring it, I'm open to your thoughts. Maybe I'm wrong, but I need some proof, or at least an argument more convincing than a really old book that tells stories of people walking on water and making women out of ribs.