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silversoul7 said:
However, here is a list of Christian beliefs of which I am still skeptical:
--that the Bible is infallible(actually, I'm fairly certain it's not)
--that human beings were created out of nothing rather than evolving from other species
--that Noah took two of every species and got them to fuck on a boat
--that Jesus was born of a virgin
--that Jesus was the only son of God(since God is the ultimate reality, in a sense we are all God's children)
--that Jesus was the Messiah(the Messiah was supposed to bring peace on earth, but that clearly hasn't happened)
--that Jesus came back from the dead(read "The Passover Plot")
--that believing all of this is the only way to salvation
--that there is even a need for this so-called "salvation" 

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How many times does Markos have to make reference to John Shelby Spong?

Any religion is just an idea that pertains to what is otherwise completely unknown to the majority of humans - because they can't know, it would cause anarchy in my opinion.

Hillbillie said:

>God can not look at ANY unrighteousness since God is perfectly Holy.<

Are we talking about the same omnipotent God here? If so, how can an omnipotent being (that is, one that is capable of doing anything) be uncapable of doing something? If God is unable to look at any unrighteousness then God is not omnipotent. The rest of your reasoning would sort of crumble after that, wouldn't it?

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-There is quite obviously a need for salvation, second birth has been practiced in some form since paleolithic times. I've already given a terse description of the necessity.

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There are Hells in Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism as well. In Judaism the conditions of post mortem existence are not articulated in the exoteric religious forms, but they are in the Kabbala - the Qlippoth or mirror image of the Tree of Life. Whatever Hell might be, it may be considered as the Wrath of God. In Kabbalism, the Tree of Life has two sides: Justice and Mercy. Justice is wrathful, Divine Fire as opposed to Divine Light. Those who are identified with this natural corrupt existence, as opposed to the spiritual pure existence, will experience the Unmitigated Light of Radiant Eternity as a consuming fire. Not to be imagined as 'flames' mind you. The ancients knew only fire and lightening besides the heat of the sun. We know Laser light, fission light, fusion light. The point is that we are like 3 stage rockets, with materialists falling back to Earth like the 1st stage to be consumed in the atmosphere, as with the psychic people in stage two who identify themselves with thought. It is only the 3rd stage that leaves the downward, fiery end for the panorama of space and the nebulosities of the heavens.

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Analogies only go so far. Salvation is a psychospiritual process in which one comes to acknowledge a new psychospiritual Center to one's psychospiritual existence. It is not the ego which is the center of one's psychophysical life (mind-body or soul). It is a higher Center. It now Governs one's life. One 'bows' to the Guidance of Divine Compassion and one surrenders one's ego to it. When selfish desires arise, they are sacrificed to the Higher law of Love and Compassion. This is mortification of the flesh, crucifixion of one's ego, and a yielding to the Living Presence of God Who now is the Pilot of one's inner life, and the ego the co-pilot, instead of the other way around. You cannot understand this until you have lived it for a while. Living it, is The Way.

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Hillbillie said:

That's a pretty shitty thing to say, I think. You probably mean no offense, but still are you that arrogant to assume your beliefs somehow fall under a better reasoning system than his?

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