Why I think atheists should not reject all religious text.

[abaris]

As far as determining a being's level of consciousness based on what we see, I think the same issue of personification that makes religion have so much weight comes into play.

Using Pluralis Majestatis here? You claim to see it, but you refrain from looking at the experiment done by the ones having expertise in the field and therefore an informed opinion or even theory.

Rhythm already adressed the rest of your post, so I let that slide.

it only seems logical to assume that the less material one has to work with, the less they can experience.

Conjecture.