Graham I take exception to your condescending reaction to this thread. The pettiness of saying that you can't write "saintfletcher" because it doesn't fit.

I'm sick of the tag "saintfletcher" too, but because this service is still in the stone-age, it is IP sensitive and it won't let me change an old joke. So I've been stuck with it for years.

Have you been hiding in some academic cave in Brisbane for too long? There is a very big world out there and they have a thing called "You Tube". If you haven't noticed, it is huge. It is growing by the day. It is, in fact Google's biggest investment at the moment.

It is THE largest interactive video archives in the world, and the most popular with youth culture. "Dendrophilian" has been on the top 7 of the most popular channel for 4 months, followed by blasphemy challenges and atheist channels.

Now, with the "Blasphemy Challenge" and the "atheist" sites sprouting from this, excuse me Graham, but this has been one of the biggest news items in the Fox Network this year.

While you dismiss my links, if you have the time, consider these links from the Fox network, on YouTube:

Fox: "Blasphemy In the Hearland"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDB3rHOHu4E

Fox with George Gibson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4y4W9j14H0

Then there is a Christian response from my favorite Christian on You Tube, the cool and new generation: Father Matthew and his response. Father Matthew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FznbwmCmTOQ

So Graham, my link are not nebulous at all, they are mainstream now. Your service is the one that seriously needs to catch up with new technology.

When will this service have video threads, and spaces for us to give video responses on cam. like you can on YouTube? Some like DB and Belly could have a following on YouTube, there is an audience for everyone, you just need a camera to upload.

We all have different opinions, but we all want to make a difference in our own ways.

Stop the pettiness Graham, wake up and catch up with the times

rache, 'the tragedy of religion...'. Can't argue with you there, but would add that religion in general, and particularily the one-godders present a fixed answer to a question where the parameters keep changing. Science has pulled apart the atom and is now looking at the spaces between the quarks, while Religion ( an attempt to understand life) just keeps banging on about obedience and observance.
Curious that a couple of billion people on the planet believe in a spiritual dimension that seperates 'life' from the material world, but the one god religions have all but forgotten any spiritual dimension in their beliefs.
Who knows that the space between the particles won't turn out to be more important than the bits themselves, and 'spirit' and physics won't become the one science?

Some interesting posts on this subject. Religious people of all persuasions including Christians often copy other religions so it's not too surprising, however some of the so called similarities between Christ and Horus are only imaginary. For instance the Bible no where says Jesus was visited by three wise men. It only says wise men and makes no mention of the number three. Also the Bible says nothing about celebrating December 25th or Christ's birthday.

In regards to the rise of new atheism. No real surprise there. Young people in America are leaving the Fundamentalist Churches in America in droves. They see the Churches over there as being completely hypercritical.

BOAZ, Why can't all religions - except Christianity - "borrow" from each other and what type of archaelogical evidence is relevant?
Are some of the lines from the 23rd Psalm appearing in an ancient Egyptian tomb not a type of archaeological evidence?

There are many more examples I could give.
Here's just one more because I know you have already made up your mind.

Sargon of Akkad was a famous Assyrian King from around 2000BC.
He was the illegitimate son of a priestess who, in her shame, put him into a boat made of rushes, sealed with pitch, and set him adrift on a river where he was found and raised by somebody else.

As well as being an acknowledged inspiration for Nimrod in the Bible, he also seems a little "Moses-like". What are the odds of two famous people from those ancient times starting their lives in the same unusual way?

As for Christmas trees, those are a typical example of how part-superstitions rule our lives and how entrenched they become over time. Gradually the original meaning is lost and new ones are created to suit the times.

For instance, why did they take flowers out of hospital wards at night years ago? It wasn't because they "took oxygen out of the air at night". It was because of the ancient (historical) belief that evil spirits could hide among them and come out while patients were sleeping and at their most vulnerable at night. Nobody recalls this today but that was the original belief so the flowers were still removed but for different reasons.

Like the classic experiment of the monkeys in the cage, the banana, the ladder and the firehose, nobody remembers or even knows the truth behind many everyday traditions they take for granted and without question. Our society is riddled with these things, yet we claim to be "enlightened".

Aethism is just a word to describe people who could not believe the religions that envelope the world and chose to believe in nothing which is initself an irony. Christianity,Islam and Judaism have much in common just many sub branches to suit peoples tastes. I see religions in the 21st century being interbred, inter-twined and unfortunately intellectualised. If DNA testing is correct, we are all travellers from the one area and with that basis we have a memory of the first myths and beliefs of the unknown from our ancestors. I thoroughly enjoy reading my history books, archaelogy and anthropology books.

Picture the world not fighting about religion, no deaths relating to religious beliefs. Consider what ever happens you are not prejudiced or alienated because of your beliefs. Would aethism be on the rise?

RACHE....I googled the Sargon thing and here is the first link I found:

http://tektonics.org/copycat/sargon.html
You don't hear it much today, but it used to be all the rage to compare the birth story of Moses to that of a certain Sargon of Assyria, and claim "Copycat!" That's not heard much anymore, other than by Skeptics using outdated sources, and we'll see why in a moment.

Please provide a link to info on Psalm 23 and it's connection to Ancient Egyptian inscriptions.

I'm not about to say that early Christian or even Old Testament writings did not make use of contemporary imagery to convey a point. Paul, when speaking at the Areopogas said "I see you are very religious.. unknown god" etc...