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>>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.

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>>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.
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>>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.
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>What do you live by?

I just told you. Look at the top paragraph

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

I didn't say I don't believe the bible. I just don't bite all of it, hook, line and sinker, as you do, and I'm not prepared to obey the contibutors' words. I know Jesus lived and I'm prepared to accept the account of His life. I also believe that He was possibly a very powerful spiritualist medium, maybe even with healing powers, and extremely enigmatic. (Imagine what Hitler could have achieved as a power for good, if he hadn't been so evil).

The bits I have problems with are the resurrection (of Himself AND Lazarus) - that it wasn't a staged event, and, of course, the imaculate contraption. Any young, unmarried girl, who got herself knocked up in those days could expect stoning to death to add to her problems. How many girls nowadays blame a teacher or accuse someone of rape to hide their shame. Mary was a bit more ambitious in Her excuse. Doesn't make her any less the mother of a most remarkable man. But the Bible says she was visited by Gabriel and, as it is "the Word" you just accept it unquestioningly.