Dear Nicnoto,
Dear Nicnoto ALL have sinned, all, everyone. There is none righteous. If we think we can make it by our own effort, we kid ourselves. The penalty for sin is death, eternal separation from God who is Life, Light,& Love, all found through Jesus the door into the Kingdom of God. Jesus came to save not to condemn. We condemn ourselves by not trusting God. Hell was never meant for man but fur Lucifer and his followers. If we chose to trust the twisted word,"Did God really say" (twisted = wicked= to twist) over the truth we share the fate of the tongue twister, Eternal separation from light, life & Love only found in God. This is called hell by men. God told Adam not to eat from the knowledge of good and evil. Guilt came with the law introduced through Moses not through Adams disobedience. All we can do is allow the word of God to change our mind, thus a change of heart. As I said anyone who thinks that he can pay the price by being good is only kidding himself. You get my point exactly for we get our identity from our father and we judge our heavenly father in the light of our experiences with our earthly father and not according to accurate knowledge. We are told not to trust our experiences but to trust the makers instruction manual and as we have free will it is our call, not the right, or the left, or your father, or experiences in life. Every one is responsible for his or her decision not Jimmy Jones cos he made me do it.

To All the much higher educated then myself I challenge you to unravel the mystery of life for ALL that pertains to life is found in the bible, which the super intelligent progressive 21 century Intelligencia chose to ignore. Jesus said" My word is spirit and it is life to them that find it." God said " Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die. As Adam did not return to the dust until he was 800 years old maybe our understanding of the word to "die" is twisted and the original meaning has been lost. As knowledge increases and we now have computers to unravel mysteries the job of unraveling the Mystery of God is now possible. The answer is not found in burying ones head in the sand and ignoring Gods Word. Then maybe we would "just get it". Have A merry Xmas all. I thank you one and all for your opinions as it has caused me to increase my knowledge to stay in the game of life.

Luke 12:49-53 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

Mark 7:9-13 Then Jesus said to them: "You think you are smart! You ignore the commands of God so that you can follow your own teachings! Moses said, 'You must honor (respect) your father and mother.' Then Moses also said, 'Any person that says bad things to his father or mother must be killed.' But you teach that a person can say to his father or mother, 'I have something I could use to help you. But I will not use it to help you. I will give it to God.' You are telling that person that he does not have to do anything for his father or mother. So you are teaching that it is not important to do what God said. You think that it is more important to follow those rules you teach people. And you do many things like that."

This Jesus you speak of is not the peace loving guru of modern interpretation. He was a social and cultural revolutionary questioning Jewish society.

What's more, your Jesus was a Jew and a Rabbi who's beliefs were founded in the sects of the Pharisees and Essene not to mention the rambling ravings of his cousin John the Baptist.

This Christian faith that has been created in the name of Jesus is so against what Jesus taught. Yet for Christians... "You think you are smart! You ignore the commands of God so that you can follow your own teachings!"

You just don't get it.

So how does that pertain to life you still haven't unraveled the mystery George, you have just stated that Jesus was just another revolutionary nut and ignored all historic evidence, and that solves nothing, for all the effects of the curse are still affecting flesh and blood people. That is not a solution as it is the problem. Your going to have to think outside the limits of the box you live in George.

Richie - I never said Jesus was a revolutionary nut. Why do you say I do? And where did I ignore history?

It is common knowledge that Jesus was a social and cultural rebel who did not approve of the abuses of faith done by Jews in the name of God. He was a great philosopher and orator with much wisdom on offer. Because he was also a Rabbi, he met with many people from all walks of Judaism. He was political being mindful of the synagogue of yore being also the seat of local Jewish Govt.: a place for Rabbis to talk about their flock. Jesus posed a threat to the Jewish aristocracy of Jerusalem because he challenged them and so threatened their authority.

As to the meaning of life: a common meaning that is meaningful to all? I think Descartes came close in his Meditation when he concluded that all he can know is that he thinks; 'sum res cogitans.' The rest could be illusion. The meaning of life then is to think.

I'm going to jump into this discussion again with my humble opinion, for what it's worth. I think that our conversation must shift away from the mass, finger-pointing that seems to pervade so much of it both here and in the media. Take politics as an example, it isn't Labor or Liberals who have ruined or are ruining the country. It's the tendency on so many people's parts to think that their way is the right way and that people who disagree with them are bad. It doesn't ultimately matter so much how people have degenerated into such mass disrespect for the rights of others who hold opinions different from our own. What does matter is that we commit, immediately to individual healing.

By that I mean we can disagree vehemently yet appropriately. Disagreement must be respectful or the disrespect itself poisons us more than either side's position in the argument ever could.

We musn't think that Australia is immune to the viruses that destroy
nations, any more than any of us are immune to the flu if it's coming through town. Many of the things that most of us were brought up to think "could never happen here," have already begun to happen.
Dangerous scapegoating, violent hate crimes, small-minded intolerance for the views of others.

At what point are symptoms seen as signs of critical illness? And at what point do we wake up enough to know that without treatment this illness will destroy us?

It is more important that we renew dignified and respectful dialogue with those who do not agree with us than we keep slavishly congratulating those who have the wisdom to see things our way.

Of course you're all free to disagree with me. ;-)
However, I'm hoping that some of you will "get it!"