>>>>>>
>>>>>>So do you agree with this from The Church of England?
>>>>>
>>>>>Ambiguous question. Are you saying, is this what the C of E taught me or do I agree with this teaching, or is this my understanding of their teaching. (polybiguous?). I've told you what MY expectations are. I believe we survive death in a spirit form anyaway, indep. of Xian beliefs, and I have ample personal evidence to assure me of this. I believe it's advantageous to be good and spiritual in this life for your advancement in the next.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I'm just trying to see if you're committed to the beliefs of the church where you have had your children baptized.
>>>>
>>>
>>>Why would it matter to you whether he is or isn't?
>>
>>I suppose it doesnt' really matter to me - but - when someone says they are a Christian, it causes me to wonder what they mean by that and how committed they are to that belief.
>
>I assumed that when a baby is babtised it becomes a christian, as opposed to a Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Shintoist, etc.
>I accept the teachings of Jesus, the 10 commandments and all that, but I have serious reservations about terms like "worshiping through jesus", the "immaculate contraption", the full Constantine Creed (which was forced on the fledgling Church by a non-christian, pushy Roman emperor), and a lot of the medieval mumbo-jumbo.
>
>The rational human in me baulks at having to say some of the stuff (e.g. in a recent christening I went to). In a perverse way I feel that if there is a God, and He's omniscient and all that, then reciting stuff that is a lie in my heart will offend Him. Again, it's all that put-the-muckies-up-the-congregation, 3-in-1, and through-Christ salvation and damnation business that you blindly adhere to that I don't buy.
>
>I'll say it again: The bible is not the word of God, but that of the men who wrote it, and I'm buggered if I'm going to live my life according to the rules & regs, and primitive interpretaion of the World and reality, laid down by some bearded scholars 2,000 years ago.
>

What do you live by?

>Why shouldn't you abide by the writings of any educated scholar from the Middle East of today? What made those ancients so right?

I choose to believe the Bible. Obviously, you have choosen not to believe the Bible. One of us is right - one is wrong. I believe I'm right. You believe you're right. I guess we'll just have to leave it at that...