Dear George,

It is my understanding that Jesus was not the founder of any religion. He wanted to communicate his insights to the Jewish community. Before Jesus Judaism was a missionary religion and even forcibly converted others to that religion. They forced Judaism on the Idumeans. Herod was an Idumean and is regarded as a loathsome figure by both Jews and Christians. Some Jews regard the Herodian dynasty as a punishment for their act in converting the Idumeans. Although Judaism accepts converts it is regarded as wrong to actively seek them - perhaps due to the experience with the Idumeans. Paul was the one who decided to circulate the message of Jesus to the gentiles. Although Christianity centres around the worship of Jesus one can make the case that Paul was actually the founder of the religion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_(brother_of_Jesus) tells about James who continued to bring Jesus' message to the Jews after the crucifixion. According to Josephus he was killed by the Jewish authorities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites tells about the Jewish followers of Jesus who rejected the divinity of Jesus and Pauline Christianity.

The origin of the Ebionites is uncertain.

Dear david f,

>>It is my understanding that Jesus was not the founder of any religion.<<

Therefore I added “(or foundation figures, if you like)” to “founders”.

Dear Everyone, Josephus knows what he's talking about when it comes to the Jewish people. After all, he did write a history about them.

Dear Loudmouth, I forgive you for your transgression. You're still allowed in Heaven provided I get one of those free $40K Rolex watches.

Dear George, sorry wrong answer, try again. Come on everyone, this problem was solved back in the 1930s. You're all starting too behave like a bunch of engineers. And you don't want to have that on your CV.

I see most have missed the point of Jesus life. The example of his life in care and compassion for community [kingdom of God] is overlooked. Unless one follows his example they are not going to enter into that community of care and compassion, his way is the only way. When david f gets his act together he might just start making such an impact in community instead of all his negativity.

Dear Mr Opinion,

>>sorry wrong answer, try again … this problem was solved back in the 1930s<<

You should have said you were after an answer within how physics saw the universe back in the 1930s. Could you give us, who are not as versed in the history of science, your correct answer?

Hi Mr Opinion,

So God needs to know the time like the rest of those she has created in her own image (plus some with useless dangly bits) ? So what time zone is heaven in ? Do they have morning, noon and night up there ? Do they have gravity ? Does God move his/her bowels at 8.15 every morning ? That presumes he/she eats of course. Does the divine digestive system work like ours ? And therefore .....

It probably crossed Newton's mind, when he was inventing gravity, that there might be a Divine Anomaly - if Heaven had no mass to counter the Earth's, then why wasn't it sucked into the Earth ? Or the Moon, if that was much closer ? Did God employ some sort of anti-gravity device instead ? How did that work ? Are there laws of anti-gravity ? Is there gravity just within Heaven itself, so that angels, us-in-the-future-if-we're-good, etc. don't just float off towards the Earth (or the Moon), but all or sit stand uniformly upright ? Under what gravitational force ? Does heaven orbit the Earth or is it stationary, hovering over some earthly point, as in the stories about Jerusalem and Jacob's Ladder ?

So many important issues to ponder.....

Oh well, back to reality.

Joe