Response to David BOAZ:

Just to be crystal clear on a certain point, there is nothing in any of my posts which criticises Christianity, and in my whole life I have never had reason to criticise Jesus. If you want to compare Islam with Christianity then I would prefer to stay out of that argument and keep my personal belief system off-line. I think you already know that, but would like to make that clear.

Glad to get answer supporting religious freedom.

You describe article such as this as: "Islam is OK, its just a few bad eggs giving it a bad name" and you rightly praise Christianity as being able to cope with criticism.

But this article is really about saying that Islam should be better able to cope with criticism too. Most people here have cheered that.

On the other hand if you are suggesting that Islam is not OK and the bad eggs (the terrorists) are its true champions, then a catastrophic war is inescapable. You do understand the nature of a self-fulfilling prophecy, don't you?

Muslims are to be pitied most because they have been taken down the wrong road ,and this was after Christ ascended and called Himself "The Son of God", His Father did not need a wife, as Muslims seem to think,it was all spirit.
We must pray for them to see Jesus as He is,His miracles alone atest to His Love and authenticity,fed the 5,000 and from 2 fishes and five loaves of bread ,He walked on water ,stilled the storms and rose people from the dead,healed thousands and yet we have people wanting to follow a lesser god.

What an insult to Christians and Christianity.

Bible NT ;2 Corinthians 4v4 , whose minds the god (satan) of this world has blided who do not believe the Gospel of the Glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them .

Today on "This is Your", Day channel 10 at 5.30 am we saw a lady healed of trilateral neuralgia with no hope but Jesus stepped in and she was healed of this agonizing pain another gave testimony of Jesus healing her at this crusade of inoperable massive brain tumor with months to live she was healed by Jesus 2 years ago and we have seen Muslims ,Hindus,Sikhs and Buddhists healed at these meetings from deadly diseases.
We have seen a video of a man in Nigeria raised from the dead in 2002,Jesus raised him and he was dead for 3 days came to life after being embalmed at a Reinhardt Bonnke church meeting and he told what he saw in Heaven.
So this shows the Jesus Christ is alive, He Loves anyone everyone and will accept you anytime.
What I am saying is, all you have to is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Muslims please hear this GOD LOVES YOU

I enjoyed this article for its lack of hysteria and its articulation of certain ideas. Another article in this vein from late last year (and from another opinion journal too) is here - http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007743

Alchemist,

Job is not meant to be historical but what is it about Greek similarities to Job that offends you? Why would a loving God prevent the Greeks from making use of its wisdom? Probably part of the canon of the Old Testament because of its universality.

If you were true to your name you would have been brought to Jung and the archetypes and you'd understand mythology (read CS Lewis also). Like the migratory patterns in birds we’re born with our own patterns the details of which we feel with particulars of our own lives but the patterns are universal. Screen writers must understand these or the movie will not resonate with an audience.

Given humans have a nature and life is structured by these universal patterns of behaviour it is not unusual that similar stories are shared by all humans. Life flows through these myths, and God chose the Jews with whom to make historically true the myths all humans know. This is CS Lewis’ True Myth. I’m surprised an ordained minister is unaware of this.

The difference is that the story of the Jews’ covenant with God and Christ's dying and rising actually happened. It is God’s myth. He is acting within the nature he himself created. To what purpose would it be to act in ways unrecognisable by His children?

How would the pagans convert if they were not already acquainted with divinity in the dying and rising god. So the pagan mythologies are a preparation for the Gospels.

The Bible is just another mythology only if a priori one believes similarity equals plagiarism. It does not. It equals love.

Understand mythology Alchemist, your unconscious choice of screen name ‘co incidentally’ might be your salvation. God can be unscrupulous, he won’t stop trying to get his child back. And be careful not to equate a change in your psyche those years ago when you apostasised with the action of the good spirit.

Your lack of colds and flu you believe is part proof of the truth of dimensional evolutionism. Understand Job.

Irfan MATE, sharia sounds like a real bag of laughs, clittoral circumsision anyone? HMMMMMMM

David the world needs to be purged every 50 years or so, war leaves many more behind than it takes. Kill em all let GOD sought em out.

All this discussion over what amounts to fairytales

The alchemist: No!- sorry - Not well known at all that the Bible stories came from the sources you claim. Err Remember it's the blue tablets weekdays and the white tablets on the weekends. If you forget again we will have another load of rubbish to plough through.
aNTONIS: No! - Again - No! It's the pagan brutal, death-loving, misogynistic moslems against everyone else actually. It's pagan moslem preachers who defame the West, Christianity, the Jews and all other reiligions. It's the raving, bloodthirsty and possibly certifiable pagan moslem clerics who preach death and destruction to the infidels, and unbelievers. It's the pagan moslem psycopaths who laud and encourage craven, cowardly and incredibly stupid suicide bombers, both men & women. It's not the way you say at all. A tip - if you cannot afford newspapers go to the local library, that's a place - Oh! forget it just wrap yourself in your ignorance. numbat