Tarsen,
I agree with your post on a couple things. There are forms of religion that do have a scientific aspect to them, you experiment with it and see what happens. I was really into the new age movement about 17 years ago.
One thing about this though, you have to be willing to accept any concequences if the experiment produces results you didnt expect.
I also understand what you said about the bible containing contradictions. There are many places where it seems to be saying one thing, then later it says the opposite. Its been my experince that if you study these things you have to take a step back to understand what is really going on there.
About 10 years ago I had the opportunity to sit down and right up the sum of my religious experiences. I have a copy of it in PDF format on my aol account. If anyone wants to read it, its over 50 pages long. If nothing else, it is interesting what we learn along the way when we really put ourselves into a serious spiritual search.
http://members.aol.com/wittlief/testimony.htm