What I find interesting about the semitic religions is the insistence on a 'good' God. Where did that come from? The ancient polytheistic religions feature deities that can have darker sides as does hinduism I believe. (Which arguably is an ancient polytheistic religion, although that feels a bit simplistic to me.) Buddhism doesn't even have a god as such. I just find the idea of a 'Good' God creating a world with pain suffering, evil etc bizarre. And you can ascribe these things to the fall of man or satan or whatever, but all of these reasons emmanate from God anyway. He is meant to have created satan and the fruit etc. (It couldn't have been a mistake either, since he apparently knows everything that will happen, thus the results of all his actions.)
The 'good' 'merciful' God idea must be a more recent development as well since the god in the old testament does vicious things to people for ridiculous reasons (eg in some sort of penis measuring contest with satan (Job).) Bit of a thread creep. Sorry.