Being saved gives the gift of eternal life with our creator. How could that not be the most important thing for any person? I understand that if someone doesn't believe that to be true then it wouldn't be important, but if you ever did believe that then it was rightly priority #1.

I had a similar experience to you when I was a teenager. I started going to youth group when I was 16-17, and felt like an outcast among a close knit group of longtime friends. I struggled to identify why I held the beliefs that I did, and for a time I strayed.

What eventually brought me back was that I could not deny intelligent design in the universe. Why are sunsets and galaxies beautiful? Why can I even appreciate beauty? Why are my genes made up of a programming language? How could all the good things in the world exist without purpose when everywhere I look all I see is purpose? Why does sex feel good? Because if it didn't we wouldn't procreate. Purpose.

The other thing that initially drove me away was the hostility of the Old Testament, which I later learned was not the norm. God placed a symbol on Cain's head to ensure nobody would harm him in spite of what he did. The Law was not the way things started out as. It was a temporary heavy handed approach for a people who had gone astray. Christ changed all that when He fulfilled the prophecies.

I don't claim to have all the answers, but I have done my share of bible study and would be happy to do my best to answer any theological questions you have.

Yes, there are contradictions, but you must understand that free will is not interfered with. The translations that we have, whether or not under the influence of the Holy Spirit, were done by man, and man is fallable. God is not going to stop someone from committing wrongdoing, because to do so would require doing so for every single person in order to be fair, and in that case we would all be robots incapable of love or choice.