Oliver,
Didn't miss it (I don't miss much!) I chose to reply to points i feel confident of my reasoning in on the basis of previous learning and research, over the ones you repeated, owing to the limitation of the 350 word post/2 per day limit.

Some thoughts: Christ said: 'I am the Way'. He did not say 'I am the ONLY way.

Christ was born a Jew of the lineage of David (Luke Ch 3) but was only a Jew by birth of Mary (Jewish heritage is matriarchal. Children born of Jewish fathers are Jews only if their mother is also Jewish so as to ensure their heredity is not divided unto other tribes) Interesting he is of David's lineage by way of Mary's husband Joseph, given that Mary had a 'virgin' birth and Jesus is thus Josephs's adopted son. (If we believe mythology and scripture).

Christ may well have been a member of a Jewish sect called the Essenes (See works of E.B.Szekely) who were healers and teachers who followed an ancient arcane knowledge of which the 'Tree of Life' held major importance. This principle is shared by the Jewish Kabbalah some believe dates back to Adam , the first man and gets an ambiguous reference in the OT in Genesis.

The Kabbalah posits a trinity of Godhead beyond human reach, Ain, Ain Soph and Aur Ain Soph, while the 'Tree of Life' is the means through which man can come to return his spirit to the Godhead. Man is incapable of achieving this without first raising his basic awareness to far higher than usual levels through perfecting the path as symbolised by the Tree. This cannot be achieved by mere intellectualism alone.

Jesus may have mastered this awareness and was wise enough not to preach a particular religion and asociated laws, but a message of putting God and allegiance to 'Our Father' at the centre of life's struggle for all men, regardless of religion. He spoke mainly to Jews as that was his culture, but many of different religions or atheism heard and followed his word.
(cont.)

It is Paul (a Roman convert) and the Roman Catholic church that much of our awareness of Christ today is due to. Rome, as the centre of the Empire, needed to assure it's position went unchallenged and in the 3rd and 4th centuries adopted what we know as christianity today, as the religion of the head of the empire 'state'.

Romans selected the books for inclusion into today's Bible, only accepting one's that they could use with as little opposition as possible to their Ultimate power (generating the 'Infallibility' of the Pope) over the populace.

It is Rome and the basis they set for christianity that requires Christ to be the ONLY way to God and Heaven and is a usurption of Christ's true message. It is MAN's philosphy that enslaves Christians and puts them at war with every other religion, not Christ's own message, which was for Jews primarily but able to be undertaken by gentiles also (a heresy for Jews; one of the reasons the Jewish Priests had Christ put to a Roman Death rather than murdering him by their own hand).

Please do not make the common mistake of crediting Christ with a desire to establish the 'One True Religion'. He tried to correct error in his own people and in so doing was glorified by others after him into a Messiah for his 'own' religion, which was something he would have despised because of it's exclusivity of those who were not 'Christian' from being able to 'correctly' know God. Christ knew our true nature and that anyone can know God initially by simply asking 'Him', just as he did himself. There's the answer to your last Q. The Real God does not differentiate his product because he wants all to be free to find their way back to God according to their own unique cultures and circumstances (abilities).

It's Man who needs converts to their own favoured religions so as to retain power over as large a flock as possible for their own needs, not for God's.

Surely an intelligent person can see this?

Oliver,
The reason I have dropped out of the discussion is that I am totally overwhelmed at where to start and what to say. These last posts of BrainDrain are typical of an avalanche of questionable data. It reminds me of reading very bad essays in theology. It is impossible for me to make a start because there is so much that is wrong. Frankly, I have better things to do.

I am reminded of Alasdair MacIntyre’s little parable in After Virtue about the survivors of a catastrophe in which the practice of natural science had been lost. The survivors use scientific terms as though they knew what they meant but they really have no idea what specific gravity is or any other concept. Scientific language became arbitrary signifying nothing.

This is our difficulty with theology today, we have lost central concepts and our discussions have about them an arbitrary character. All of the old heresies are rehearsed as if they have become yet again a solution to a theological problem. There is no real grounding in theology as a discipline that has arrived at certain conclusions that everyone in the field recognizes. This means that it is very easy to take on a supposedly critical attitude or, on the other hand, swallow concepts whole without understanding them.

I know this sounds elitist but how many other disciplines would put up with totally uninformed comment. As I have mentioned the subject of religion has become the property of everyman, the consequence being that everyone thinks they can make intelligent comment. This thread has demonstrated the falsity of this attitude.

After reading the earnest entries in this thread, I feel thoroughly abstracted. I then had this sudden revelation from god himself who said to me "behold my children are lost....and I have sent my servant John Howard to lead my people to the promised land. And god said "blessed are the miners for they shall inherit the earth and blessed are the share holders for they shall recieve dividends".

And John Howard said "always a lender or borrower be and then you will have the respect of everyman or woman". And John then came to the valley of global affairs. There in the darkness he witnessed a burning bush and John pronounced "verily we will attack Iraq and prepare them for the light forces of the market". And all was good.

and I opened the second seal of the packet of Dunhill Blue and I saw drought, bush fires and sulphur descend upon the great cities. The people were punished for several weekends before christmas. But the people won the ashes. And all was good.

Sells:"As I have mentioned the subject of religion has become the property of Everyman, the consequence being that everyone thinks they can make intelligent comment....."

You got it finally.Great.
So now you finally agree that religion is a property of selective people to make believe on so called "TRUE" belief .That is what the point of contention is.Religion has become a property of selective people like you who make believe on their belief!!
Make sure to root this on your neurons:God has no religion and HE cannot and does not discriminate people/animal/any creature on basis of religion.Period.

This is exactly what I mean. Where to start replying to Lochinvar’s post? The study of theology is perhaps the oldest academic pursuit around which the universities of the West were formed. It could be argued that a university without a faculty of theology cannot be called a university, it is a glorified technical college. Theology is the discipline around which all other study congeal. The problem that present day universities are facing is the vacuum of purpose and method produced by the absence of the guiding hand of theology. This is why we have become degree factories and why independent thought is becoming increasingly rare. Of course theology is a specialized subject! Just like chemistry and physics. The idea that in religion anyone’s opinion is as good as anyone else’s is obviously absurd. To be a speaker of the language theology in the academic sense you need at least NT Greek, church history, Old and New Testament studies, and systematic theology. Take a look at all of the big names in the universities, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, and the list goes on. We in Australia are living in an academic impoverishment, we do not understand our history because we do not understand our theological history, our literature is opaque because we do see the biblical references, our art is forsaken because we have missed its true nature, our philosophy is empty because it has no ground, even rationality is slipping from it. The hysterical outpourings on this comments page tell a long story of neglect and ignorance.