Dear Grim,

The social environment influenced everybody's morality. Following is from Christians questioning their morality.

From Bishop Spong recognising Christian inspired hate resulting in the Holocaust

ANTI-SEMITISM: And the people answered, 'His blood be on us and on our children'" (Matt. 27:25); No other verse of Holy Scripture has been responsible for so much violence and so much bloodshed. People convinced that these words conferred legitimacy and even holiness on their hostility have killed millions of Jewish people over history. Far more than Christians today seem to understand, to call the Bible "Word of God" in any sense is to legitimize this hatred reflected in its pages.

Bishop Spong recognises the sexism inherent in Christianity.

SEXISM:

"For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man." (1Cor. 8-9);The message of the Christian church was once that women are evil to their core and it was built on the story of Eve. She was taken out of man and was not his equal, but his helpmeet. Evil entered human history through the weakness of the woman. She was made to bear the blame and the guilt. She was the source of death."

Some opposition to abortion would deny women control over their bodies. Some Christians prefer women to be mere baby-making machines.

http://www.kanaan.org/international/israel/israel1.htm is part of the website of the Evangelical Sisters of St. Mary. The beginning of the website.

The Guilt of Christianity Towards the Jewish People
How It All Began;
The Middle Ages;
The Modern Era;
A Call to Repentance;
Recommended Reading

After the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed, the question was raised: How could it have happened? The shocking truth is that the Holocaust was the culmination of centuries of hatred and violent persecution, often inspired by Christian theology.

End of extract

One way that Christianity denies its guilt for the Holocaust is by calling Hitler who was raised a Christian and had a Concordat with the Vatican a humanist. Hitler lived and died a Christian unlike Jesus who lived and died a Jew.

Gee Runner, what a grim, backward world you paint!
I was brought up a strict Catholic, fully expecting to burn in the fires of hell as a child if I didn't attend mass every Sunday or if I told a lie to my parents. That was child abuse.

Then I found out that if I did commit a sin, all I need do is go to confession the next week and confess, and I would be forgiven. Easy really. So, all the paedophile Priests or Brothers had to do was confess these 'sinful yearnings' to their confessors regularly and they could happily go on offending with a clear conscience.

Then I grew up and was able to think for myself rather than go by a 2000 year old book written by men who claim to know what 'God' wants of us.

Now I often wonder what happened to all the millions of people in the world (our ancestors) who lived before the supposed son of God came among us to 'save' us 2000 years ago?

All these people must have been living a very sinful life indeed without the guidance of an old book to go by? Hell must have been full to overflowing of all those people!

As for Runner's last controversial gem of wisdom- 'People who refuse to teach their kids the way of salvation are really child abusers', words almost escape me at the hypocracy of this statement.

The number of so-called Christian teachers who have taught the supposed word of salvation to children, such as Ministers, Priests, Nuns, Brothers and Deacons, who also taught sexual abuse, physical and mental abuse to the kiddies as well cannot be counted.

I believe children can be taught the morals, rights and wrongs of living in our society by other good people. We don't need religion to tell us how. I know this because there are just as many really amoral people amongst religious people as amongst anyone else

i got the idea it is reasonable
to assume God is a human invention
from Aborigines, david f.

Now that was a great post suzeonline, welcome.
Forgive runner he/she is bogged down in a desperate need to clutch on to the straw, the idea man is just a plaything for one or another God.
Look at every book runner, some truly great books telling about humans have been written.
Every work of art, painting, film shows man is able to understand and create a whole lot more than you think.
I have read thousands of books, fact or fiction man created every one of them.
The sun will rise this morning, on every country every religion equally.
It is not the work of a God who has us all in his toy box, it is not a God who wants us all on our knees before him/her.
If it was? I My Friend would not bend for such a tyrant.

Very good point, Shadow; in fact I would go further, and suggest it can hardly be denied that religious values are a construct of the society they come from.
I'm sorry, Runner, but this sentence bothers me greatly.
"Unrepentant sinners have chosen their path to hell by rejecting a merciful God who sent His Son to die a horrible death for them."
I don't really understand how any father could sent his child to a horrible death for any reason, and still be described as 'merciful'. On the same note, we in Australia only incarcerate even child molesters, rapists and murderers. I can't imagine any human worthy of the name condemning even monsters like this to a lifetime of torture and torment, much less an eternity.
Why would a so called merciful God condemn a Human, created in his own image, created with the ability to reason, and question and wonder, to an eternity of torment, for not having 'faith' in a story handed down through story tellers for thousands of years?
Why would you give homage to a being who is self evidently less 'moral' than you are?

davidf,
You see yourself rather smart to misquote words recorded in the NT used by the Jewish opponents of Jesus to have him put to death. Your ignorance of reading text is demonstratably unintelligent. This is not the attitude of Jesus, who wept for his countrymen, or should be of his followers. Read the story of true Christians like the Ten Boon family during the Third Reich who gave food and protection to Jews. Anti Semitism is not a Christian development, and Hitler was not a follower Of the teachings of Jesus.

To quote you,"ANTI-SEMITISM: And the people answered, 'His blood be on us and on our children'" (Matt. 27:25); No other verse of Holy Scripture has been responsible for so much violence and so much bloodshed. People convinced that these words conferred legitimacy and even holiness on their hostility have killed millions of Jewish people over history. Far more than Christians today seem to understand, to call the Bible "Word of God" in any sense is to legitimize this hatred reflected in its pages.

When you quote scripture be sure of its context. Tell the truth about Jesus who prayed for his murderers forgivness. Do not quote lies in the name of Christ. Obviously you have few moral scruples about facts. Your bigotry reveales your deception and is not a true representation of Christian practise or faith.