No I'm agnostic.
When it comes to the explanation for the origin of humans, I don't exactly have a belief. Belief is usually based on faith, I prefer the term accept. I accept the idea that humans evolved from ape-like creatures as it is predicated on evidence, and an overwhelming amount of it.
I don't dislike the prophets being middle eastern. I meant that the locality of the religious revelations are suspicious. All the prophets were Jewish except for Mohamed who was Arab. All the identified prophets are also Jewish, again apart from Mohamed. All the events that are chronicled in the Quran happened in the Arabian Peninsula. God sent a message to all of mankind in one language. That's pretty inefficient.
My first point wasn't necessarily saying that god is cruel (though he does appear to be so), rather that the existence of a god who responds to prayer is difficult to substantiate. Whenever god gets credited for answering a prayer such as curing a sick person, it is in an ambiguous situation. If someone gets their cancer cured, how do you know it was due to prayer? It has more to do with the fact that we don't understand the nature of these diseases so we cannot pinpoint the cause of the cure. However, imagine if we prayed for an amputee and then their arm started growing back? That's not ambiguous at all and it would be pretty convincing.
I understand the concept of god testing us in the dunya but that seems like a consolation tactic. If you tell people who are struggling that they are being tested and if they persevere they will be rewarded in the after-life, it can help them get through hard times. Doesn't mean it's true though. This is even more difficult to justify when you take into account the extreme disparity between the types of "tests" that people face. When a 13 year old kid gets brain cancer, is that also a test? When 5 year old kids starve to death, is that also a test? Probably not. But if you tell them "don't worry, god is testing you so persevere" it may make them feel better.