I really can't get behind this article. Part of being a Christian is accepting that Christ is divine and rose from the dead. If you don't accept that, you're merely a "Christ follower" in the same way that someone might be a Gandhi follower or a Kevin Rudd follower. If you want a great moral teacher whose commands you can admire and live by, then take your pick, there have been plenty. But Jesus was different because he conquered death. That's the unique aspect of the Christian claim.

Phil, for me, accepting the validity or otherwise of miracles was never a factor in my eventually discarding Christianity.

For a long time, I was willing to subscribe to the sort of laissez-faire, CofE Christianity I was brought up in. Miracles, I consigned to the unsophisticated, superstitious baggage of the past, best viewed through the instructional lens of mythology rather than treated as literal fact.

What drove me from Christianity - from religion entirely, in fact - was the basic irrationality of religion, and most especially the intolerance and violent fanaticism of too many of its followers.

Just as Richard Dawkins claims to have been radicalised in his atheism by 9/11, I was profoundly shocked out of my benign tolerance for religion by the Jyllands-Posten affair.

Christianity's feverish obsession with sexuality, and its disastrous consequences, haven't helped either.

Even though I'm not a Christian I agree with Trav's argument, Christianity without miracles and the Resurrection is just another philosophy of life, like the teachings of Confucious or Epicurus. The author is, in the final analysis, presenting an argument against religion.

the reserection is a key reality]..at the time judeans believed we die and wait for a reserection day,..jesus main mission was to prove we die[but then imediatly get'born again'..into spirit,even a thief will be reborn into their next life[its a fact]

but the mirracles are not...[woe you unbeliving/nation needing signs]see his first mirror call[the cana/wedding feast;jesus CLEARLY states;..'it is not yet my time'..[yet next/thing is he is making whine for drunks?...lol]

see that the servants took the masters'private stash''..not wanting to have the master;lose/face[a servent of a discraced'master'has even more loss of face..[better to risk the masters wrath[than have them or him loose/face]

but to the 2 de mirror-call[feeding 4000/5000],see the hand wash jars,mentioned at the wedding[then later at the temple]were absent at the mount..[thus all did eat all they'wished'..[because the judeans didnt'wish'to eat;sans the handwash/ritual

[note the clever use of seating..[so each watched the other not eat]..the teaching is about how fixed in our faith we really are..[no ritual they would rather starve]

the increase of bread is as easilly explained..[i wont eat,but i will add to the feast,i brought along in case i should meet with a host,with the required ritual/jars..[think of the maids and having oil[be prepared]..the excess-food came from those judeans;'who did not eat[but shared their'plenty'.]

his deciples clearly didnt know;the_ritual[ie re/eating the shew-bread sans'washing their hands'..[to which jesus replied;..not what a man puts in that maketh him unclean..but that which issues forth from it..

we expect miricles..[but our belief built on faith is a weak foundation..[hence the vile of estar/bunnies and satan/clause's],..designed by the vile to weaken faith built on faulse belief in miror-calls

one who blasphemes an-other loves the blasphemy,..by loving the blashamy they reveal..that which..more will be given of[in the next realms]..[for we are ALL BORN AGAIN]..into the fathers/house's many rooms,..but sort into sheep/goats/wheat/chaff/tares.etc based on that we loved to do..[more shall be given...lol]

[each prophet has his own room..[every sect etc,there are uncountable realms of belief/disbelief in the next-life..[we all are sorted by the passion we love..[we have love of debaiting rooms..even for those masses who love to debate the mass

mac (and maybe trav), i would have thought it was up to christians to say what it means to be christian.

bushbasher,

You made an incorrect assumption, I was educated at a Christian school and I have some knowledge of the Christian faith. The Nicene Creed states the basic tenets of nearly all Christian demoninations,I suggest you read it, and then, you will understand my argument.