I have to agree. I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and was kicked out of that religion for not believing that the armaggedon was going to happen in 1974/5. At the time I was dully unimpressed (having lost my entire social circle) and "just assumed" that that particular religion was particularly bizarre.

My being "kicked out" happened about the time I was starting to go to university (which was frowned upon THEN, not now) and I talked to many people of many different faiths (mostly Christian denominations) to find that while they may have had a longer history to come up with arguments to manage their contradictions - they were still full of contradictions which were only managed and not resolved.

After many years of soul searching and questing in every imaginable way I finally came to the conclusion that Jesus' death had nothing to do with my sins or anyone elses but that he, instead, had managed to get powerful people mad at him and that the whole story of "dying for our sins" reflects not realilty but the closeness of Jesus to the apostles, so that they had to invent "super reasons" for his death. A modern example of this is when some poor child dies on the parents lobby the government so that "no child will ever die like this again" when we all know right well that at best the effort will help only a little and, it's real purpose, is to appease the horrible grief suffered by the poor parents. I finally came to the conclusion that this same human drive was responsible for the "greatest story ever told".

Maybe I'm wrong. But telling any Christian this will produce behaviour as bad as the JWs in 1975. Simply "not believing" is enough to get you kicked out, loose all your friends AND relatives, and worse.

I studied physics at university. The one thing about the hard sciences is that truth has nothing to do with my believing it. Truth is truth no matter what I think. If someone believes some crazy thing (like the world is flat) it makes no difference to the world. It goes on being round.

But with religion you "have to believe" or you are the enemy. It is power politics pure and simple. You can't even have your own thoughts.

My real point is that they are all like that. Tell any Christian a good sounding argument to deny that Jesus died for our sins and see how they drop the "nice and sweet" act and instead show outright signs of contempt and hatred. They are all the same, nice and sweet unless you threaten the core belief which may be, in fact, the most ridiculous thing you ever heard.

Brian J.

Good point, I live in Italy ------ you can immagine the situation if someone makes critical or negative remarks about the Pope and the related mumbo jumbo.

Get out the full metal jacket.

I am so sorry that you have had such negative experiences with Christians and with faith in general. I only hope you can one day see the relationship aspect of faith, not the trappings. You are cerntainly not "the enemy." You are searching, just as the rest of us. I hope you can get past the messengers, fallen all, and see only Christ. Then you will understand true hope, peace, and love. You may want to read Romans, I know it has had a huge impact on my life.

I will pray for you.