egillham,

"I am interested in other people's experiences and ideas. May I ask you a question? If only one Australian cricketer was a Christian, would you still be a 'believer'? If so, why does it make any difference how many of them are Christians? If the whole Australian cricket team were Christians, would that make your faith stronger? If so, why?"

Can I know the reason for your interest on other people's experiences? Where did I say that I am a Christian or a 'Believer'? I dont care if one/all of the australian cricket profess christianity. I have read Aussie cricketers comments in a magazine and after reading your posts, Lorese's and others, I would like to know your reaction. That's the reason for me quoting Aussie cricketers and their christian beliefs.

Now, it's your turn to answer my question.

egillham - In response to your September 6th post, yes I do believe that all non-Christians will burn in hell for eternity, especially cricket players.

Lorese - I came here in the spirit of democratic, enlightened conversation and you turn nasty. I refuse to engage in personal attacks; Judas.

Michael4Love - I agree, Jesus was a true existentialist. There was another man, who 66 years and one week ago followed that very sentiment and achieved truly wonderous things; may we all aspire to reach such goals.

* obozo: "Can I know the reason for your interest on other people's experiences?" It's seems normal enough to share experiences and ideas. Probably most people talk to each other for that reason. Now to answer your question about hating Christian cricketers, where did say or imply that I hate anyone at all? I hardly ever even think about cricket or cricketers, and care even less about what religion they follow.

Here's something you might like obozo, a big list of famous Christian scientists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Christians_in_science
Happy reading - I'll leave you to it.

Evan
"Any religion that claims to be the only 'true' one is quite obviously false!"

Why? Claiming it is 'obvious' isn't much of an argument.

In fact, since all religions make exclusive truth claims, then at most one religion can be true. This does not mean that they are all false though.

Statistics are not your strong point either, are they Mr Grey?

If there are two religions "claimed", then there are three possibilities - one is right, the other is right, or they are both wrong.

If there are ten thousand, then there are ten thousand and one possibilities, with me so far?

However, every time you add another to the list of possible candidates for being the one and only, you increase the chances of none of them being right.

In fact you can actually show statistically that it is impossible for any of them to be right, given that there can only ever be one correct answer.

This is the way it works.

There are already ten thousand "claimed right answers". I invent a new religion (Jedi, anyone?) that statistically has a ten thousand to one chance of being right, assuming of course that it conforms to all the norms of the other religions - omnipotent deity, structured worship, that sort of stuff.

Now if I continue to invent a new religion every day for the rest of my life - and everyone else does the same - very soon the chances of any one of them being "right" would be infinitesimal. Negligible. Insignificant.

Once you reach that point, it is statistically sound to say that none of them has the slightest chance of being true.

So Evan was perfectly correct to say "Any religion that claims to be the only 'true' one is quite obviously false!"

What he meant of course is "by definition, false"

* Pericles: Thanks for the correction.

This will be my last post on this thread, so I'd like to take an excerpt from Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' (modern translation). Maybe there is someone who might still read this thread and appreciate it:

This friar boasts that he knows hell,
And God knows that it is little wonder;
Friars and fiends are seldom far apart.
For, by God, you have often times heard tell
How a friar was taken to hell
In spirit, once by a vision;
And as an angel led him up and down,
To show him the pains that were there,
In the whole place he saw not one friar;
He saw enough of other folk in woe.
To the angel spoke the friar thus:
"Now sir," said he, "Are friars in such good grace
That none of them come to this place?"
"Yes," answered the angel, "many a million!"
And the angel led him down to Satan.
He said, "And Satan has a tail,
Broader than a large ship's sail.
Hold up your tail, Satan!" he ordered.
"Show your arse, and let the friar see
Where the nest of friars is in this place!"
And before half a furlong of space,
Just as bees swarm from a hive,
Out of the devil's arse there drove
Twenty thousand friars on a route,
And they swarmed all over hell,
And came again as fast as they had gone,
And every one crept back into his arse.
He clapped his tail again and lay very still.

From 'The Summoner's Prologue', 'Canterbury Tales' by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Adios.