So Philo having studied the history and religion of India what is your stance?

Are they cultural/human constructs or do they have the same validity on par with Christianity?

Also what is your stance on pluralism in general?

I spent time yesterday with a wonderful educated Papuan man whose father was a head hunter in the jungles of West Papua befoe he became a Christian. He is here in Australia educating Australian people on his training Colleges in Java and West Papua. Ask him is his life is better today than farming pigs, sweet potato and fighting wars with his neighbours on the next ridge.

He has learned of peace, love for his neighbours, as he organised 80 of his students and workers to assist in Banda Aceh after the tsunami. I think I will follow his type of religion.

Philo, I would be very pleased if you could explain my religion to me, as it seems you won't answer questions about your own. I had the opportunity to spend time in the Highlands of Papua in the 60's and again recently, so I would believe I have knowledge in the how life there has changed. Even though I met some good christian people, their only aim was to convert and they refused to accept any difference. We can all see what the situation has become in all countries invaded by the religious. It is all well and good to drag out the headhunter scenario, but that only brings up the current invasion of Iraq and the unabated slaughter of the people there by the christian and Islamic right. It would be very enlightening for us all if you were answer our questions, Why don't you answer the very good questions neohuman asks, why won't you address the doubts of others when faced with the reality of what the christian religion really represents. Why won't you explain the actions of christians during the Spanish inquisition, and the thousands of women killed in the name of god because they expressed or looked different and were branded as witches. What about the indigenous people that have been slaughtered over the centuries, explain where that fits into your gods plan of love and tolerance. It seems that your brand of love and tolerance only goes as far as the believers, everyone else is branded as just cannon fodder. Come on, what about the question posed to you about evil. After all, it was a christian that started this debate, “ the scandal of christianity”. So we are just expressing how scandalous it really is. Sorry I forget, we don't discuss fact, just head in bible stuff. How will you ever convince us of anything to do with christianity, if you refuse to explain its approach and implementation within the world and why it is so.

gw
It is of the essence of populism to call anyone who delves deeply into a subject elitist. Populism sees itself as the great leveler, no one may stand higher than anyone else or have any more authority than anyone else. I understand the antinomy towards so called experts, the increasing professionalization of all aspects of life that is just a front for high fees. Perhaps we should call the lactation consultant in maternity hospitals “the milk lady”. However, you may not need to know much about astronomy to see that the sky is blue but you will need some sophisticated physics to understand why it is blue. Is that elitism?

I know that some of my posts seem obscure and I apologize for that. Part of the reason they seem obscure is that we have come so far from an orthodox understanding of Christianity, there have been so many theological mistakes in our time of modernity, that it is difficult to clear the air. As I have repeatedly tried to explain, the God that Christians worship is not the god that modernity has given us. This is the major obstacle to understanding and the major reason that Christianity is abandoned. It was only in the beginning of the last century that the Trinity was rediscovered in Protestant theology (by Karl Barth) and this has not filtered down to the pews. Most Christians still believe in the monadal consciousness of modernity even though the liturgy beings in the name of Father Son and Holy Spirit. It is necessary, in order to recovery lost theological concepts, to go into the theological workshop as it were and to do some hard work. It is very discouraging that this hard work is not being done in most parishes let alone in the lives of unbelievers.

The difficulty involved in making the jump from the god that modernism has left us to the orthodoxy of Trinitaritian thinking cannot be underestimated. It requires some effort. That is not elitism, it is simply challenging theological work.

Sells, have you noticed that atheists have become increasingly sensitive about the imposition of religious perspectives on their lives? There is a reason.

The current conservative swing of the pendulum is perceived as an infringement on the rights and beliefs of others. The following link to the Washing Post exemplifies the reason why. Christians are becoming politicised – this is at the expense of an inclusive and egalitarian society.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/03/AR2005070300908.html

For you to propose that non believers should take up theological studies in order to ‘prove’ to you that non believers still don’t believe is evasive of you and is bordering on a game in semantics.

I attended Sunday school, I began to question the existence of God at age 12, by the time I was 15 I no longer believed – I literally couldn’t. The hypocrisies and inconsistencies and the lack of relevance to the real world prevented me from believing ever again. I am now 51 and have investigated the ideals of many religions from Christianity through to Buddhism. Buddhism relates more to living than anything else does.

I would love to wrap a protective coat of religion around me, rather than face the fact that I alone am responsible for my actions. That would be an easy way out. Instead, I stand on my own two feet responsible for my actions, my mistakes, my life. I do not seek to impose my POV on anyone.

Your claims that critics of Christianity get it wrong reeks of grandstanding on your part. Then to state that without intensive study in theology none have the knowledge to disagree with you is highly offensive and insulting to many people's intelligence.

Please pay your fellow human beings the respect of their right to their own beliefs.

Different religions have differing views of time. One view of time is that it had a beginning and will have an end. Religions that take this view of time include Christianity, Judasism and Islam.

Another view of time is that it is cyclic, or rather, eternal. You're born, you live, you die, you're reborn and so it goes, on and on, ad infinitum. Religions that take this view of time, I'm told, include Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

The best scientific opinion we have these days is that time, matter and energy did indeed have a beginning. I understand that this is part and parcel of the Big Bang - whatever starting conditions are postulated. It is also required by the laws of thermodynamics; for if entropy is always increasing in a closed system and the universe is a closed system (which it must be, by definition) then the universe cannot be eternally old or we would already be in a state of maximum entropy, i.e., the universe would be heat dead. But it isn't, therefore the universe is not eternally old. So if you're wondering why we shouldn't regard all religions as equally true there's a good start for you. You can forget about Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism at least.

If it is so that the universe had a beginning then at some point there must have been no universe at all; not any particle of it. That is, as far as the material universe is concerned, there must have been nothing before there was something. Since you can't get something out of nothing (and even anti-matter is not nothing) there must have been something outside of (external to, greater than) the universe and that brought it into existence.

Anything powerful enough to do that surely deserves the name God.

The problem then, for people with the heart to search (and who, perhaps, can't stomach mythopoietic, existentialist, abstract hooey) is to find out who or what is this astonishingly powerful and creative being who made everything both on earth and in the heavens