I agree with what you are saying about the grey area and the ying and yang with possible truths from both sides. That is also something that i ponder, that not all o fthis was created by something but what if we like we do with other more inferior species are almsot a test or an experiment. With there being infinite dimesnions whose to say that we ourselves are not a dimension that was made up by another culture or being to see how life progresses. They than would be our god creating the first types of life on this planet but they did not create all, that could be a possible imbalance that you speak of in other terms.
As you stated in the beginning about control and power, the church in europe was the most powerful organization that was about at that time. In many cases the king would even seek advice formt he church and if the church did not approve he would not go through with actions.
The use of Faith is a brilliant tactic as well, faith is an idea that is not tangible, it can not be seen, tasted, felt, smelt, or heard but instead you just have to believe in it. This in my opninion is why faith is used so much in religion because they have no proof or evidence and if you requested proof or evidence than you did not trully believe. If you did not have faith than you were a blasphemist and your sould was damned to hell for not having faith in god and questioning him. when you do not allow questions than your word becomes law. This is why religion has so much power becasue there is no room for questioning but instead only faith is allowed.
That reminds me of a story that my teacher had told me in highschool, tiny bit off topic from religion but everytime i tell this story my hair stands on end, my teacher told us of a dream that he had. In this dream his parents were alive (in real life they were dead) and they were sitting in his living room and his sister was over. In the middle of this dream he realized he was dreaming because his parents were alive. He started to laugh in his dream and his sister asked what was so funny, he than responded with im laughing because i am dreaming. she said no your not dreaming why do you say that, and he responded because mom and dad are dead but they are right here now so i must be dreaming and i need to wake up now. His sister than began to cry and he said whats wrong why are you crying, she said becasue im going to die. He then told her that she wasnt going to die and that she lives next door and he will see her in the morning when he wakes up, and she responded no that is your real sister, i am your dream sister when you wake up i am going to die. At this point he woke up in a cold sweat and tears unbelievable of the dream he had just had. and yes i do have goosebumps now lol.
This story however, mirrors the alternate dimension theory that i spoke of, your dream worlds could be alternate dimensions and your brain is creating them. Your brain is so powerful that it can create full landscapes and other people's personalities and how they react to situations that they encounter in your dream world.
In regards to alternate dimensions it is believed that every single tiny fraction of time is another dimesnion in itself that is always being played over and over again and we are just moving through these little fragments of time but they are always occuring before, after and while we are currently living them, so in theory everything is a present in one dimesion or another.
Another possibility is that none of this is real, it is possible that we became so advanced that we possibly and again this is such a crazy theory but hey who are we to say its false, that we became so advanced that we created a computer that is so complex that we uploaded our thoughts and personalities on it and it is right now generating all that we see and do and we are really now just proccesses in this computer.
Or could we possibly be having a dream right now, im sure all of you have had dreams in dreams (they are really fun it feels like you are sleeping for days lol). what if this right now is a dream and your whole life that you are now living is a dream and that all of our environment and everyone that we are in contact with are in fact just renditions of things and people we know in the "real world" and our mind is making all of this up right now. As our brains do now when we sleep they create other people, situations and personalities that we interact with who is to say that this right now is not one of those renditions, and that in our deaths we are really just waking up form a sleep and that we will go on and have another day and than go to sleep again that night to have another life inside of that dream. The dreams that we have when we sleep right now might already be dreams in dreams and that is why most nights you do not have or remember dreams because they really did not happen because you are already dreaming right now.
pretty crazy stuff i know but this is what really intrigues me and i cant get enough of this stuff lol. if you really think about the universe our lives and what happens after death is can generate some fear, we really have no clue what happens to our minds and our beings after death and thatfaith is all that we have to answer that fear that is generated. What if there is no after life and there is only darkness what if there is nothing after this life forever, but then again how long is forever and if it doesnt end that is it really even a reality.
Alot of What if's and no answers so now i demand some answers lol