Here's another summary of more deeply held beliefs:

1. A long time ago, a young girl who never had sex with a man gave birth to a child.

2. That child grew into a man who was killed quite thoroughly by the Roman standard method of execution at the time. He remained dead for three days then came back to life.

3. After walking around for a month or so, this man floated up into the sky. He's still floating around up there somewhere.

4. He's coming back down any day now.

Somebody who says, you know, I don't really believe that any of that stuff is literally true, but I do think that loving your neighbor and turning the other cheek are really really good ideas worth putting into practice - this is *not* a Christian.

Can you make a case that somebody who really holds the beliefs above has a working rational brain? That such a person is capable of reasoning?

No wonder the Christian churches are at war with science and rationality.

No wonder some of our supposedly Christian political leaders continue to believe whatever they want without any regard for facts.

Rael