>I guess that Mother Teresa comes closest, at least in modern times, to being a well known example of practising Christianity as it is intended.

And what were the intentions of Christianity, in your own words?

It seems simple enough to me, an excersize in game theory. If you can get your environment to favour your strategy, you will prosper. Jesus (or so the story goes) was peaceful. He figured that if he could find away to make everyone else peaceful, he'd be in a pretty cozy spot. That I believe was the intention of xiantiy.

Unforuntately, problems arose as the strategy "Be good" is not a stable one (this is often demonstrated with the Hawks and Doves example). So more and more rules and complexity had to be added to the "be good", stories about enforcers in the sky who watch you and know what you're thinking; houses of worship; strange rituals like prayer and fasting to occupy your mind, ect. If Jesus was a real person (I'm not convinced he was or really interested in knowing for that matter), I'm guessing that this foolishness took place after his time.

I realize this doesn't make sense in the accepted timelines of the old and new testament, but consider what Thomas Whitely said about life changing very little for the common man, and the population coudl manipulate and patch together current stories and mythology to make things fit.