Im an atheist but…
Ive given a lot thought about religions I could believe in. Heres my made up religion.
First there is God. He has always been here. Its turtles all the way down. God is bored. God creates angels to keep him company. Angels bathe in the light from God everyday, this creates happiness and contentment. Thus angels are boring and very similar to God and other angels. God wants something different. God creates the universe. God does not interact with the universe after he created it. There is suffering in the universe. God asks the angels to enter the universe. Some angels agree and we enter the universe and become human beings. There is suffering but this creates interesting people/angels. When we die we go back to God. God eats us. We become One with God. God takes the suffering into himself leaving the angels to bask once again in the light of God which makes happiness. God is increased.
There is heaven but no hell. There is suffering but we agreed to suffer. Praying does no good.
Comment on my fake religion or postulate your own.
Interesting. For my own religion, if I were a god, I would make frequent visits, showing people who I am, what I am, etc. I would try to make good, but more on the understanding side of clarity. No books with blaring controversies and errors.
I would explain that I am immortal, you (ALL humans) get no afterlife. And no, I can’t change that. Your human laws seem to fit. If you murder, you spend your life, your only existence in jail. This may bring down the murder rates.
I would let all the bombs get created and tested in the deserts, but when dropped on people/cities, just a big thud. No explosion. Also, if some freak decides he’s going to rape someone, he immediately passes out for 5 days. Then misses work, school, parole hearings and would be really easy to arrest.
Create an infinite field of “personalities” (or souls), disable their capacity to feel boredom or pain, put their pleasure centres on max for infinity.
If I had to create something resembling Earth, I’d disable the existence of laws and give humans infinite life: regenerating to their desired appearance every minute. If they desired repose, I’d allow them to go catatonic for as long as they wished. Perhaps each person got their own Earth with other people in a friendly simulacrum. Earth expands with the growing population. There are no scientific laws: if gravity inconveniences a human, its suspended. Fire does not harm human flesh. Nutrition isn’t necessary.
If an individual desires to rape another, they go flaccid (and their hormonal balance is restored to limit said desire). I don’t consider that a limit on free will any more than not being able to shoot lasers out of our eyes is a limitation on free will: in a society where we could shoot lasers out of our eyes, we’d think that God would be limiting our will by removing that capacity.
I have to disagree on th eidea that there is no hell. Souls who feel they deserve punishment for whatever infractions they committed in life need a penance place.
As when Jurgen visited Coth’s, his father, soul in Hell. Coth was driving all the demons assigned to him to distraction by insisting that the furnace was not hot enough, and they were all scrambling for more fuel and working the bellows until they collapsed. As in life, there was no pleasing that man.
I have a friend who is a “Universal Salvationist.” He believes there is a hell…but it empties out over time. The last evil souls out get to turn off the furnaces. The idea is that no earthly sin can possibly warrant infinite punishment.
Is this a “made up” religion? Some people have said so. I kinda like it, and if, for whatever reason, I ever embraced Christianity, it would have to be of this variety.
As a fantasy writer, I’ve made up several religions… My favorite was, alas, quite derivative. It resembled the classical ancient Egyptian pantheon, with an after-life triad of accuser, defender, and judge. The purpose of religion in life was to prepare people to stand before the judge.
If I were to create an universe, it would operate under laws of plenitude, rather than of conservation. There would be no such thing as “shortage.” There would always be enough space, enough food, enough water. Always. Human population 74 trillion? Hey, we’re only beginning to grow! Watch that J-curve explode!
Heaven gives this life meaning, when you get to my heaven theres an even better heaven available you can go too if you’re good to give that heaven meaning, and so on.
It’s turtles all the way up.
So, crudely speaking… we are God’s sitcom? Or perhaps God’s reality TV channel? Survivor Earth? 
The universe is just a computer program. Not a simulation like the Matrix, but more like the Game of Life or another cellular automaton. God is just some kid playing with the program on his computer. Most likely he’ll get bored after a while, but if we’re lucky he’ll notice that in an unimaginably tiny corner of the simulation, there are some interesting structures moving about, and he’ll collect them as interesting patterns.
Eventually, research into deep laws of physics lead us to discover small bugs in the program that simulates us; the bugs allow us to leak data to outside the simulation. We exploit these and discover a global network on this outer world, somewhat like our internet. Because the civilization was so peaceful, they never saw a need to build security into their networks; we quickly seize the opportunity and conduct a virtual coup of their world government.
Ultimately we are able to upload our personalities into robotic bodies in this outer world. Our “God” is the first on the firing line, responsible for the death of trillions.
My god likes pizza. Usually with pepperoni. I sacrifice to Him using deep-dish.
Makes as much sense as the rest of them.