Hi I'm glad that at least you have a desire to know whats real or not. We must at least be open to what we want to interrogate rather than drawing conclusions before getting started, for that I commend you. While we want to keep an open mind we don't want to open it to the extent that our brains fall out. I was in the same position as you are now about twenty yrs ago.
There really is a truth about religion that is more than just a fable or fallacy.
I will be up front with you so as not to let you think something other about me than what is true. I Believe in Christianity but not to the extent that most Christians now a days practice. There are many So called practices of Christianity that are just that practices, Not what is true or prescribed by the Bible. Unorthodox Teaching is making Christianity look like a fools point of view, or religion.
The books of the Bible have been compiled by God Fearing men who would take each of the books and study them to see #1 if they believed they were inspired by God #2 if they told the absolute truth Historically, and #3 if they are inspired and Historically true then do they have information that is relavalent for our lives.
I hope I am not boring you with info that you consider to be irrelevant, but it gives us a foundation to start with. As mentioned I too was looking for what was true or not, after studying most religions (main ones of today), I went to the Bible to see what It had to offer. I found that Scientifically it was very very sound, Predictive Prophecy was overwhelming, and Historically it has stood its Ground time after time. Matter of Factual When Science and Man has questioned its validity it has never fell. It stands today with no contradictions, scientifically very correct and historically absolutely fact, That is why I kept on going when I thought I found a biblical error or contradiction I would be elated, thats until I found that when you translate a language to another that sometimes there are things that cant be clearly transliterated. some thing to the effect that you cant say Goodbye in Hawaiian or Hello, There language has a barrier in that term, you say Aloha for Both.
Well in this matter we have to be careful in our study and include the old languages to our list of Biblical interpretation. With out it there will appear to be contradictions Biblically. For just one instance we can find that in the old testament God Tells us to love our parents, when we get into the New testament we find Christ telling us that we must hate our parents in order to follow Him. It appears that these two statements contradict each other, but with the knowledge of Greek all chaff (that which is Bad) falls away and we find ourselves with just wheat (that which is good).
You see in the Greek language of that time and unlike English they didn't have a word Hate, only a word that means Love less. So you see where we have the word hate in English they didn't. So does what Christ say have a major contradiction no, Hes saying that we must love our parents less or better stated, We must love Him more than our parents in order to follow Him. No contradiction at all, and no not an excuse or different interpretation either, only proper interpretation. So you see we have to really be willing to put forth our best effort in order to know if something is true, and not just believe by Faith. God has Given us light down the ally of this life and we can see all the writing on that Allys walls. Evidence it what I am talking about, We don't have to take a leap of Faith and Jump, We have verifiable evidence that is conclusive.
For instance we can read about Christ being Crucified in the Old testament in other words predictive prophesy. In Psalms 22:16 we read that they have pierced My hands and my Feet. This is about the cross and it is a scripture that we can say that Christ is talking as David writes totally inspired by God. This is what we call A shadow of things to come you can see it very much better after the fact, it is in fact pre incarnate Christ speaking from Heaven through Davids hands. Not only that but no one used Crosses until the Romans approximately 70 yrs B.C.
I didn't come to this kind of factual evidence in any other Religion. Even Scientists who want to find out about a particular minerals origin or how weather works they know that if it is discussed in the Bible that they will have records of truth.
Many Scientists have come to know God threw the Bible.
You spoke of the Jehovah's witnesses using Genesis Well thats because its in The Bible, What they wont tell you is that at the turn of the twentieth Century they weren't aloud to call them selves Christian because they were considered by Christianity to be a cult. There religion is only 120 yrs old, they in turn took 12 men who's names are not known (this is really funny) to reinterpret the Bible to fit there train of thought, so these guys rewrote the Bible in their Favor its called the New world Translation. What so funny is that they don't tell people of the names of these men because once again they didn't know Greek. How can you make an interpretation without knowing the original language. You can't.
As for a lot of Christianity has become a Bible twisting group, there are many that still adhere to the original way of Teaching and not putting their own meaning into it. Jehovah's witnesses, oneness Pentecostal Apostolic, word of faith, prosperity movement people who claim to be Christan will find that they are sincerly wrong.
Mormons as well are far from biblically sound.
I only went to this extent to maybe Help you as it were, because my studies took me over 10 yrs before I found that which is true.
If you have any Questions you can contact me at rcscrolls@aol.com, I am more than willing to take any amount of time that it may take to help. please feel free to ask I wont be offended.