Hello,I'm a reverand but not of the christian,muslim,hindu or jewish faith.The questions about existance is a timeless one,the 5 major religions have different viewpoints and look at things differently plus there are hundreds of smaller religions which makes the views even wider not to mention Atheists,since the conversation is primarily based on biblical/judeo/christian ideas,I will be addressing that concept primarily.First you have to dig and really find out where these religions come from,basicly it is like a bunch of different little rivers that just keep converging into each other-mixing and mashing together yet keeps on flowing,each religion or belief over time evolves or mutates or joins other beliefs-hence my river comparison.If you look at the origins of christianity it stems from judaism and paganism obviously,but just how far down does the rabbit hole go-well-Deep,so where does judaism come from,this is actually very easy-judaism primarily stems from 3 major sources-paganism,sumerian/babylonian,egyptian.Basicly in a nutshell the Jews originally had there own pagan beliefs and worhipped 4 main gods later as they were enslaved by the egyptians and babylonians they were educated by the wise men of knowledge of both great civilizations and mixed and mashed their beliefs with these but they put their own spin on it(the flood story is straight from babylon but with a jewish spin).Anyway later christianity sprouted and had many different little factions all believing differently,each faction had their own version and writings.Now the Roman empire was the super-power of the day,and between 36c.e. and 325 c.e. the christians became more and more numerous but like I said before there were many factions and sub-factions etc.the Roman empire was slowly turning to christianity but was still predominantly pagan,constantine the ceasar had a major problem on his hand the pagans and christians were ripping each other apart which was weakening the empire so constantine makes a brilliant move and foces the christians and pagans to merge to make everyone happy and bring stability to his empire.Now remember my river comparison-paganism and babylonian and egyptian beliefs begat judaism which begat christianity which mutated into another pagan/christian belief which also absorbed many other beliefs along the way.But getting to the bible,the bible is a collection of jewish and christian writings from the first century some go back as far as the 2nd cenury b.c. but not later,anyway the bible contains 66 books compiled into 1 book,so where does this book come from,well in the year 325c.e.the ceasar constantine ordered a council together to solidify all these different beliefs into one,it was called the council of nicea,there a bunch of religious leaders sat around and voted on which writings were going to be in their new holy book the bible,so out of 300 or more books they decided that their holy book only needed 66 books-so it became the christian bible it is today thanks to voting not straight out of heaven like most would have you believe,but also at that council they voted on various other things such as is jesus god or not and many other things as well.This brings us to our conclusion,which is this-their are many paths to life we are all here now breathing and thinking,loving,eating,sleeping,living life,some perceive reality different from others,some just don't care,some just except the socially exceptable majority belief system blindly but you don't have to,READ,SEARCH,THINK,PONDER,LIVE,LOVE and ENJOY.always remember "you are free to sever the chains of fate that bind you"-infinite balance in all things.