Good one Foxy; I heard a similar one.
When the man walked up to the Pearly gates, Peter said "welcome friend; before I let you pass, tell me what you consider to be the best deed you ever performed."
The man thought for a second, then replied "well, there was this one time I saw a bunch of big hairy bikies picking on a little old woman, so I walked up to them and said 'hey, leave her alone!'"
Peter said "excellent! That's the sort of attitude we like around here. When did this happen?"
The man replied "Oh, about ten minutes ago, I think..."

david f,
On what grounds did the Romans put Jesus to death? Your claims are unfounded nonsense. The Romans had no cause to put him to death. The Sanhedrin did not meet as you suppose just some Jewish authorities who made accusation that Jesus was causing trouble.

What Roman archives do you read. I have copies of letters written by Herod and Pilate to Rome held by British Museum with notes by Justinus who was quoted by Josephus as being a historian at the time. Though Justinus does not mention Jesus the wtitings of Herod and Pilate do in their reports to Emperor Tiberius. Pilate is reported to have committed sucide for putting to death innocent persons when Tiberius sent a possy to have him brought back to Rome to answer for his actions.

Dear Philo,

If there was such a person as Jesus the biblical account has surrounded him with myth since the account contains many myths that were around at the time attributed to such pagan deities as Adonis and Apollo. The whole crucifixion may have been a made up story to conform to that of the many pagan deities who were reputed to be sacrificed and miraculously resurrected.

Anglican Bishop Spong has tried to strip Christianity of myth and retain some of its teachings of fellowship and love. Spong has recognised evil in Scripture.

From his website:
http://www.johnshelbyspong.com/bishopspongon_theTerribleTexts.aspx

RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY:

"No one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6)

This text has helped to create a world where adherents of one religion feel compelled to kill adherents of another. A veritable renaissance of religious terror now confronts us and is making against us the claims we have long made against religious traditions different from our own.

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.

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.

Rather than attack Catholics it might be well to realise how biblical myth has imprisoned you. Spong wrote, "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentaliam."

"Though Justinus does not mention Jesus..."
Yes, isn't it peculiar that a man who had (and still has) such an impact, wasn't noticed by any contemporary historians?
Almost miraculous...

An interesting thread, Foxy.

In response to your original idea:

When I taught literature and literary history at a state high school, I found myself spending a lot of time explaining religious principles to students so that they could understand the texts they were reading. This extended beyond the countless biblical references in canonical literature. For example, the theme of equivocation - prominent in Macbeth - needs to be explained with direct reference to the Jesuit endorsement of equivocation (the sin of a lie is in saying something that is untrue, rather than in deceiving someone through tricky words) in the early years of Protestant England. Modernism, Romanticism - many literary movements draw strongly on religion and new perspectives on old religious ideas.

In these cases, I taught religious beliefs in a sociological context. I didn't openly endorse them (if students asked me if I believed these things, I'd give an honest answer, but that was as far as it went) - I taught them as 'things some people believe'.

With religion playing a prominent role in society, I think it needs to be addressed in education, just as other ideologies are, in a sterile, 'social science' sort of way.

I have just been watching videos on the Classical period of China. It is worth a study. The Chinese language characters tell the story of the first 11 Chapters of Genesis in greater detail 2,000 years + BC and 800 before Moses wrote Genesis.

Much of the word character formation follows the Mesopotamian character. They claim Noah as their ancestor as the father of their ancestors. They worshipped the God of Noah until the time of Mencius 479 BC. The Chinese Classical literature they do not classify as myth but as their ancestral history.