>>It's like God should have made Himself a play-mate while He was at this creation lark, isn't it, to keep Himself from getting bored. He used to sit around thinking, "I'm bored. How can I p*ss of my creation today, with some petty laws, just to keep them on their toes and make sure they break my top commandment "Thous shalt not kill" so I can get them on that one at the pearly gates". The above quote, if I read it properly says: "If some bad-ass among you has lead some people astray, top the lot of them..."
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>>Say, how come He hasn't had written any more rules/laws in the last few thousand years? Does He think we wouldn't fall for it, or play ball anymore? I wonder why that is. Oh, yes - we're too smart now. Besides, His son came and changed all that killing palaver didn't He. What was God doing? Sulking cos JC changed the way the business was run?
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>>And why was it only the people in the middle east that were screwed about like this? Us pagans over here were happily going about killing each other without divine intervention. But I doubt we went to the lengths that these poor wretches had to go to, in the name of God.
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>>Amen
>
>Dude, sounds like you've had one too many ales today!<g>

I assure you - just water. The point I was making is that God (if you believe He wrote, or had written, the scriptures) loves toying with His creation and throwing in a lot of daft laws, and just won't leave us alone. But the full brunt of His draconian laws fell on the poor sods in the ME, who had these dick-heads writing them down. Now you may think I'm blaspheming (I've made sure to use Capitals throughout the thread when using His name) but I belive all these words are not God's, but those of anally-retentive men with an axe to grind. Monty-Pythons sent up such men, and laws, beautifully, in "Life of Brian", in the Stoning Scene.

>I can't answer your questions, but I feel certain you'll get the opportunity to ask Him yourself!<vbg>

Yeah, I'll be up there, with the pious and righteous, who'll be pig-sick when they see Freddie Mercury and Frank Zappa there, and wonder why they bothered. :-)