It's not confusing at all.
Religion is a human -institution- centering around common spiritual and sociological philosophies.
The bible is a 'resource' - a collection of scriptures consisting of human accounts of events considered to be of spiritual importance.
One can be spiritual and be highly critical of religion and religious institutions. The Church (as a whole) largely became the antichrist back when they started worrying about trying to determine who does and does not go to hell. That is an attempt to judge souls (something we are not to do) and effectively play the role of God (declare ourselves as God).
Even I recognize the futility of judging another's soul. I can judge their actions against the functional needs for society - and make the sound choice to remove a person from that society (in a manner that represents minimal expense to that society). I believe we have been given that as (allegedly) intelligent, sentient creatures - and we can put a person to death. That does not mean that we should attempt to judge that person.
Why?
Because when you judge a person's soul, you take it upon yourself to say that you will forever hold them in contempt and never accept them as a decent being. And with that attitude being held by many people - Heaven will have a very small population, or be a very hellish place.
