Dear Davidf,
Why would God bother with your thoughts when you obviously think you can cherry pick his thoughts. In the book of revelation ch 22:18 & 19 Jesus puts a warning which you obviously ignore and cherry pick. It is there for your benefit not to harm you,
but as you say we have free will and it is our choice. If I am wrong I lose nothing in being a better person, But if you are wrong you will pay the price.

Dear Richie 19,

We neither of us lose nothing by being a better person. I think being a better person is by being kind, thinking of others, making others glad you are around and trying to make the world a better place. However, believing in religious mumbo jumbo has nothing to do with being a better person. A Muslim might say you are condemned to hell because you don't believe their mumbo jumbo. There is no reason to prefer your mumbo jumbo over their mumbo jumbo. In my opinion the most reasonable course to follow is to avoid mumbo jumbo entirely.

Oh csteele and Pericles so much intellect and yet so much underuseage of same.

Pericles inadvertantly did pick up an error I made although I have answered his silly question before.

You are correct about "Truth" I am asking for "Honesty"!

Remember the test you failed when you made up a statistic?

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=2530&page=0#57541 honesty!

At the end of that thread Daviy posted the following which no one commented on - I brought it over Daviy

The date of the birth of Jesus has nothing to do with the Bible. The date came from Dionysius Exiguus working backwards from 533 AD.
“We have seen his star in the East” (Matthew 2, KJV) has been mistranslated from the original Greek. “We have seen his star appear in the first rays of dawn” would be correct. According to Jewish prophecies, the Messiah would appear when there was a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the constellation of Pisces. This unusual astrological event occurred three times in the year 7 BC and is consistent with the correct translation of Matthew. Also Herod the Great died in 4 BC so 7 BC seems the favorite.

Working backwards from 533 AD being 7 years out wasn't to far off.

Is the Bible true? If it is not true Christianity self destructs.
Do Christians seek God or seek to justify Christianity?
The Bible was put together by Christians for Christians and no system that feeds on itself to support itself is valid. If Christianity is to be valid it must be able to be supported by outside sources.
Is the Bible True? Does it matter? It is only a self fulfilling prophecy at the best.
The existence (or not) of God is something that can only be known to each of us one to one basis. No self fulfilling system can do that for us.

Richie 10 wrote:
"Why would God bother with your thoughts when you obviously think you can cherry pick his thoughts. In the book of revelation ch 22:18 & 19 Jesus puts a warning which you obviously ignore and cherry pick. It is there for your benefit not to harm you."

Are you not cherry-picking verses to suit your argument? What makes you think that something written in the second century would have any significance to someone in the third millennium?

For the record, those verses contain a warning given on Sunday June 25, Pentecost 114 AD to Pope Alexander I by Jesus III, at the christening of his son Jesus IV, that Hyrcanus would try to change the boy's education in ways that were contrary to the teachings of Jesus I. For this Hyrcanus was subsequently excommunicated.
http://www.pesherofchrist.infinitesoulutions.com/index_Word_for_Word_REVD.html

Some interesting comments to my post.

First Taoism. That which and be named is not the way. (God/life is beyond comprehension).
How do live in the ways of a God beyond our comprehension?
The Way gave birth to the ten thousand. (God created everything).
Therefore to live according to Gods way we live in harmony with everything God has created.

We are facing all sorts of problems because we have not lived in harmony with all that god has created.

<God does not express its thoughts to us so there can be no relationship. In fact I look upon those who tell me what God wants or thinks with great suspicion>

God does not express his thought to us as a collective (even if the Christian/Jewish/Christian preachers claim it does to them). Totally agree if you intened that as a collective; but to say this means that we as individuals cannot have a relationship with God is incorrect.

You may or may not, but this is your relationship only. You cannot speak on behalf of another person. I totally agree with the last part of your statement. They would be trying to do exactly what you did in the first part of your statement.

What I am suggesting is 'Gnosis'; the truth from within. This was the very thing that the church of Paul labeled heresy and went to great lengths to eradicate. Gnosis is death to Paul's version of Christianity. I am all for that outcome.

I agree with Jesus that the gateway is small. Jesus told us exactly how small the gateway was. Take personal responsibility for our actions. Say yes to what we want and no to what we don't want. Do away with judgment and listen to what comes from with (for it will save you if you do and destroy you if you don't).

OP2, you still insist upon labouring under a massive illusion.

>>Is the Bible true? If it is not true Christianity self destructs.<<

This is, simply put, a fallacy. A complete and all-encompassing misreading of the situation.

To take every word of a religious scripture as literal "truth" is to be a fanatic. What you need to remember is that the Bible was written by people, edited by people, translated by people, and relevant/expedient/ useful sections hand-selected by people.

To imagine that inconsistencies, contradictions, misunderstandings, mistranslations and politically convenient additions would not find their way into such a document, is to be wilfully ignorant of the conduct of real life.

It is possible to conjecture that Christianity might not have survived so long without the existence of the Bible. However, pointing out a few discrepancies is not going to cause its disappearance.

Some people need a religion to help them make sense of a confusing world, one that contains far more questions than answers. You aren't going to change their minds with your clumsy attacks.

And you might remind me, what was the error I picked up?

>>Pericles inadvertantly did pick up an error I made although I have answered his silly question before.<<

I do recall many questions, though, none of which you have been brave enough to address.

But please don't worry about me. I'm not holding my breath.