Was the story really so simple? *spoilers*

Honestly, my best suggestion is that you just read the book. The paperback is only about 220 pages and it's a fast read.

Tons of extra material was added to the screenplay that never appeared in the book at all and a lot of changes were made and added - most of them bad.

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Only having read the book I did not see any of these themes you did. But maybe that is why it is such an interesting story, meaning people can see various things in it?

I read it as more focused on the astronomer's desire to get to know the Overlords true nature, so it was in the Cosmic Horror genre?

However, there is also a lot of social criticism in the background, it has to be said.

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It's a bit of a twist that the aliens actually ARE there to help us in spite of their appearance and our apprehension. The Mini-series was short and didn't handle all the themes well, but basically all religions are lies. Well, self-deceptions. The reason the aliens and their technology seem demonic is because humans have a racial premonition about this day coming -- a sort of prophetic vision of how the world will end. So, it flips religion (especially Christianity) on its side and says we fear change, and we know this is a big, scary change... so we view these aliens that facilitate the change as demons (things to fear). In a sense, the Bible and its end-times prophesies were a kind of misinterpretation of things to come based on fear of change.

There is no devil in this universe. The Overmind is the collective minds (souls) of all the sentient races that have ascended before us, and we have finally evolved to the point of ascending and joining with it. It's a kind of rapture, but only for the children evolved enough to go. The Overlords are there as midwives to help us be born into our next evolution. It's scary. It's sometimes painful, and like going through puberty... it can be downright confusing and emotional. The Overlords are there to help.

As for the children, they're born with powers they don't understand and can't control. That's why people get hurt accidentally. When the woman's cross is mangled, she takes it as a sign of evil powers at work, but that wasn't the case. She sees signs that aren't there and hates the world because most no longer believe in her superstitious beliefs. She calls the aliens deceivers b/c so many have turned away from her faith after their arrival. She breaks down crying as she seems to accept the words of the alien -- that she had deceived herself. (Basically it's not the alien's fault she believed in a religion that was false.)

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noticed from the beginning the story seemed to take many twists and turns and when the final ending came on episode 3, it didn't make much sense to me.

Yeah Sci-Fi messed it up. Not too badly though.

The overlords were supposed to help humanity achieve peace/harmony and then facilitate mankinds evolution, by having the evolved children join the overmind.

Correct.

But, it also had heavy religious overtones and from my memory of the bible, which is limited, it also seemed to suggest they were false prophets (Think that's the term) sent by the devil to confuse/deceive us.

No. The Overlords are here as you say above. They just look like the devil.

It almost seemed to me like the overmind was an alien form of Satan , sending this alien race to wipe out humanity in some fashion and because we turned away from god, by embracing the gifts/improvements in our lives, god let it happen..

The Overmind is the Overmind. No one knows what it is, not even the Overloads who serve it.

A few things stood out in the story, in the first episode Karellen said he came to earth, because we were on the verge of discovering interstellar travel and that the stars were not for man.

Correct. Man is meant for the Overmind.

The alpha/prime child who had the power to control/influence other children,

Yes.

seemed to be created by that probe which was scanning the female while she slept.

No. It scanned her, and found her.

She herself said she wasn't pregnant, implying the couple never had sex, so the aliens impregnated her, which is a lot like other devil/devils child being reborn movies in the past.

Wrong. The child is theirs, just as the boy is theirs. Their children are the chosen ones of the Overmind.

Then there's the Ouija board and that womans cross being crushed/mangled, the violence against the dad from that kid and the doctor who also got thrown against a wall.

Immaterial. Not from the book.

The whole story just seemed, to me at least, to be about the devil basically killing us all off, by using the aliens advanced tech to effectively enslave us into believing they were our saviors.

Wrong. The Overlords just *look* like the devil, that's why they don't want to be seen. They know we are xenophobic. The story is about the Overlords preparing mankind for the Overmind.

Probably looking into it too far, mind you :P

Yeah.

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