Gibo, Polycarp & Runner,

I think you'e wasting you're time arguing with david f. He's made up his mind and he sticking to what believes (or doesn't believe). You're no more likely to change him than he is to change you (or me).

Dear Steel Mann,

I appreciate your accurate assessment.

Dear Polycarp,

I appreciate your polite manner.

However, I wish you wouldn’t tell me what I mean. You wrote:

“What you really mean is. "Some people, wrongly, have claimed alliegance to Christianity, and have perpetrated awful, unChristian,unGodly acts in their treatment of others

We cannot dismiss Christ because of some paedophile Priests."

The paedophiles are only a recent Christian outrage. Christianity has a bloody history – conversion by violence, the Dark Ages, the Crusades, the Holocaust inspired by the words of Martin Luther and other Christian bigots, the Wars of the Reformation etc. The paedophile priests are a trivial footnote.

My complaint is not about unChristian acts but about Christian acts.

In the classical world many people had abandoned the belief in the many gods of that time. They had dismissed the superstition.

When the Roman Empire became officially Christian people were not free to abandon the new superstition. Those recognising the nonsense of it were persecuted.

The Jewish tribal myths of Genesis became articles of belief. I see no reason to believe in the miracles in the Jewish Bible or in the New Testament. The circumstances of Jesus’ life have too much in common with pagan deities such as Osiris, Mithra and Apollo not to come to the conclusion that he was a mythical figure adopted by early Christians to make their new religion acceptable to the gentiles of the classical world.

The two groups of early followers of Jesus were the predominantly Jewish followers of James and the followers of Paul who had a much larger gentile admixture. The followers of James were mostly wiped out in the failed revolt of 70 CE so a greater opening to the gentiles became necessary for the new sect. So the Paulists adopted many of the pagan myths and put it on the Christ figure. This appealed to the gullible then and also now,

We are born, live and die. It is nonsense to assume that religious belief will give us eternal life. Christianity fostered by the Jesus myth has been a disaster

Dear David F

I didn't mean to impose my own meaning on your words... I was trying to dig behind them.. let me put it another way.

The things you observed... are in my view better explained by.. (then read the rest of my previous post)

I still feel you are not seeing the real Jesus. You are looking at history and not being adequately discriminatory between clearly unChristian actions and Christian. The means of determining which is which are clear in the teaching and life of Christ as recorded in the NT.

It is crucial to recognize that all the supposed Christian behavior which you observe throughout history is only confirmed or denied by a comparison between the behavior and the foundation.

It is not reasonable to say "Look at that Christian man committing adultery.. clearly Christianity is a no good belief system" when you can read that Jesus said "If any man so much as LOOKS at a woman with lust in his heart he has already committed adultery with her"

In other words.. the standard of behavior laid down by our Lord is a very high one.

But we are kinda sidetracking here :) the thread is about Mr Henson.
I read in the paper today that some people suggested the correct approach to his visit would have been for the principle to approach the school council which includes parental representation and then.. after (if) obtaining their agreement, a newletter would be sent out, seeking the views of parents. At that point the feedback could be assessed and a decision made.
I totally agree.

The parade of innocent children before the eyes of Bill Henson was no different than what a paedophile would do. Searching for attractive children to his eyes who are sensual, subservient and able to be manipulated.

Even Bill Henson’s defenders have admitted his photography of naked children is disturbing. Art Centre critic Robert Nelson admits ‘I find the pictures a bit creepy’.
“In an interview with Arts Presenter Leo Schofield, Schofield described his photographs as being of ‘high eroticism’. Bill Henson did not disagree.

Philo.. you hit the nail on the head.

Arts Presenter says High Eroticism

Henson did not disagree.

It's like a huge banner in the sky "MIUAUG" results in 'this'.

If Henson did not take issue with that statement.. which is highly damaging to his motivation... it rather says it all.

My feeling is that if you do something controversial, you are obliged to defend it from the criticism it attracts.

Philo: << The parade of innocent children before the eyes of Bill Henson was no different than what a paedophile would do. >>

Yeah right, Philo. Paedophiles are invited all the time by school principals into school grounds.

Interesting that Philo still refuses to acknowledge the falsehood of his claim that Bill Henson's artworks are "illegal". No surprise, however, that OLO's most mendacious Christian reckons he "hit the nail on the head".

Fortunately, not all Christians here are liars - just some of the frootloops.