Dear Yuyutsu,

If the sayings of Jesus as reported in the New Testament are accurate he was an arrogant egomaniac.

He claimed that only through him could one enter the kingdom of heaven. It doesn't matter how good a life you led, but you went to heaven only if you bought the Jesus mumbojumbo.

If somebody came to me and said, "I am the way, the truth, the life." I would think he was an arrogant nut even if his name was Jesus.

The Jews of that time had not gone so far astray that most were able to recognise the arrogant Jesus nuttiness for the nonsense that it was.

Dear David,

My interpretation of John 14:6, is that Jesus, being a realised soul, knew who he is. In his own words, "I and my father are one".

But that's not specific to Jesus - since there is nothing but God, anyone can legitimately say: "I and my father are one".

As a consequence, you too could rightly say "No one can come to the father except through me"... "I am the way, the truth, the life" - not the carpenter's son called Jesus, not the learned old human called David, but what he truly is as well as what you truly are, God.

(I believe that the real reason why the Jewish leaders of his time gave Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified, is that he challenged their authority and ruined their business when he kicked out the traders from the temple)

Dear david f,

It doesn't matter if one likes or dislikes the coming of a Sino-Australian nation. The fact is it is now inevitable and people need to work out how they are going to exist in a society where non-Chinese will be discriminated against because of their racial heritage.

But getting back to the question raised in this topic, it appears that everyone except me does not like the idea of having a seniors' advocate in the Senate. Everyone (except me) seems to have given up on life and are ready to roll over and die without a fight. No wonder the Chinese can come into the country and take over everything and become the preponderant social group so easily. Now I know what the Chinese mean when they say things like "Aren't the whites dumb?"

Hi there YUYUTSU & DAVID F...

I've watched quietly while you two debate the existence of a Christian God or any other God for that matter. DAVID F with his implacable beliefs of atheism and YUYUTSU trying to rebut DAVID'S arguments with quotations from the Christian New Testament bible.

My own personal views are quite simple. If a person is confronting a particular crisis in their lives, such as a terminal illness or watching a loved one battle with a terminal illness - if they derive some measure of comfort from embracing certain passages from the bible, then I believe there's certainly no harm in it, whatever a person's beliefs are.

Moreover if an individual is entering the final stages of their life, and they find some spiritual repose from accepting the Christian faith to help them face their mortality again, so be it.

As a former veteran and a copper, I've witnessed many people grapple with their greatest fears, usually of an horrific death, or whatever, by turning to 'a God', I say good on them, whatever floats their boat and gives them some comfort, irrespective of my own personal beliefs.

My personal believes are simple (sorry YUYUTSU). We're born, we live for a few decades, and then we die upon which we return to dust. All rather simple and tidy I would've thought. No heaven, nor hell or purgatory - just dust.

Dear Mr Opinion,

I see no point in discussing anything further w you.

Dear o sung wu,

If they can grab a morsel of comfort from it good. I agree that our life on earth is all we have.

Dear Yuyutsu,

The New Testament was written as a propaganda document for a new faith. It is highly unreliable as a chronicle or historical account.

From Carpenter's "Pagan & Christian Creeds - Their Origin and Meaning"

"At the time of the life or recorded appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, and
for some centuries before, the Mediterranean and neighboring world had
been the scene of a vast number of pagan creeds and rituals. There were
Temples without end dedicated to gods like Apollo or Dionysus among the
Greeks, ... etc. Societies, large or small, united believers and the devout in the
service or ceremonials connected with their respective deities, and
in the creeds which they confessed concerning these deities. ... notwithstanding great
geographical distances and racial differences between the adherents
of these various cults, as well as differences in the details of their
services, the general outlines of their creeds and ceremonials were--if
not identical--so markedly similar as we find them.

I cannot of course go at length into these different cults, but I may
say roughly that of all or nearly all the deities above-mentioned it was
said and believed that:

(1) They were born on or very near our Christmas Day.

(2) They were born of a Virgin-Mother.

(3) And in a Cave or Underground Chamber.

(4) They led a life of toil for Mankind.

(5) And were called by the names of Light-bringer, Healer, Mediator,
Savior, Deliverer.

(6) They were however vanquished by the Powers of Darkness.

(7) And descended into Hell or the Underworld.

(8) They rose again from the dead, and became the pioneers of mankind to
the Heavenly world.

(9) They founded Communions of Saints, and Churches into which disciples
were received by Baptism.

(10) And they were commemorated by Eucharistic meals."

The New Testament Jesus was made to be compatible with existing pagan gods.

Hi (again) MR OPINION...

You're perfectly correct in your assessment, it was Mr Lee Kuan YEW the former PM of Singapore, who once described Australia as being the new 'white trash of Asia'. And it's come to pass, unfortunately.

Do I hear you ask why MR OPINION ? Because we've had a succession of politicians from both sides of the political spectrum, who're are similar to a 'roo caught in oncoming headlights, stunned into a sort of paralysis of inaction and not knowing what to do. Instead of adopting a strong bipartisan alliance to do what's best for the country as a whole, they engage in petty politics for the enhancement of their own position of power and to worship their God of 'filthy lucre'. And now Mr OPINION it's all rather too late for Australia.