Dear Foxy,

You wrote: "Barbara Thiering wrote the book, "Jesus The Man: A new interpretation from the Dead Sea Scrolls." In her book Barbara Thiering presents her landmark research into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament. She provides a radically different history of the life of Christ which sweeps away the miraculous and superstitious elements associated with the origins of Christianity." (Taken from the blurb of her book)."

Without the miraculous and superstitious elements I don't think there is much left of Christianity.

Dear David F.,

From the Introduction to "Jesus The Man" :

"The virgin birth, the miracles, and the resurrection can
be viewed in an entirely new light ... They never were
literal events...nor were they myths, traditional legends,
as scholars often held. Something really did happen,
and what happened opens up a whole new understanding of
historical Christianity."

Reading the book will help towards understanding.

C.S. Lewis wrote: "I believe in Christianity as I believe
that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because
by it I see everything else."

I really don't think its right for atheists to ram their disbelief down others throats especially if those others don't ram their belief down theirs.
Talk about hypocrisy.

Dear T800,

Nobody can ram anybody's belief or disbelief down anybody's throat. We can only tell each other what we do or don't believe.

runner has a perfect right to tell of his views regarding religion, and I have a perfect right to tell of mine.

What I gather from your post is you approve of someone stating their beliefs but think atheists should keep quiet.

If someone is so uncertain of their religious beliefs that an atheist stating his or her views will upset them then they are on shaky ground.

Perhaps you should have a good look at yourself and your behaviour then david.
The topic is hardly about religion per se and it seems all you want to do is exactly what i described.

Foxy

when someone can show me that aboriginals have not got the same laws and rights as anyone else I will consider a vote to change the constitution. To me its just another con to fool people. In my experience with working with aboriginals they receive the same rights as anyone else. In many cases they receive far more than the wider population. Unfortunately many are brought up in totally dysfunctional families which are full of violence, alcholol and drugs. I don't see changing the constitution changing that situation. Already many have hatred of the whites drummed into them from history revisionist and folk lore. Winshuttle seems to be one who writes accurately on Australia's history. Unfortunately his accuracy is more than many academics and those who have a rosy picture of paradise before the British arrived can handle. I say leave the constitution alone unless someone can give a straight answer as to why change.