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This is not what Christ intended to become of his teachings,

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In fact, implicit in much of his teachings is that we are all inextricably linked to the divine.

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Gorian said:
How the hell does some "magic man" dieing wash away your sins?

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This will take some time to explain.
1.  Garden of Eden-  Adam and Eve ate the fruit frome the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  This act was a sin, because God told them not to do it.  This act also introduced the knowledge of sin into the world.  Since Satan tricked them into doing it, he was given a greater punishment. 
Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden so that they could no longer eat from the Tree of Life (which gave them eternal life).  This was a blessing, imagine living forever in a world filled with sin. 
The first prophecy of Christ's coming was in Genesis 3
(This was directed toward Satan) "I will put emnity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel."  (this is LONG time before Jesus actually appeared on Earth).

Now foward to Exodus:
God resided in the Holy of Holies, where only the most High Priest could enter.  Before he could go in, he must cleanse himself.  If he were to sin while in the presence of God, he would be struck dead.  That is why the High Priest would tie bells around his ankles and a rope around his waist.  If the people outside could no longer hear the bells, they would pull his body out. 
God told Moses what should be done regarding sin.  The wages of sin is death, so something living must pay the price of sin.  Blood is shed for the sin offering, usually a ram or a bull.  It must be perfect in form, and its bones cannot be broken.  The blood shed washed the penalty of sin away.
While this was done quite often, there was also a yearly sin sacrifice. 

Forward to Jesus:
Jesus lived a sinless life, since only a perfect being could be offered for sacrifice.  Under Roman law, it was illegal to both severly scourge and crucify somebody at the same time.  The Passion goes nowhere near to the severity of the actual flogging.  The Roman soldiers were actually trying to expose organs.  Jesus had all of the power to stop the torture and vaporize the soldiers, but he did not.  While he was crucified, all of the sin of the world, present and future (inlcuding today and to come) was heaped upon him.  God cannot stand to be in the presence of sin, to he turned his back on Jesus.  That is the definition of Hell- the absence of God's presence.  Jesus was in Hell while he was on that cross.  When Jesus finally died, the veil covering the Holy of Holies was ripped from top to bottom.  Jesus paid the price of sin permanently so that we ALL can be with God.  Since the next day was Passover, the soldiers broke the legs of the other two criminals so they would suffocate faster and die.  Since Jesus was already dead, they did not break his legs.
The most important part, is the fact that Jesus rose from the dead three days later.  He was triumphant over death's hold.  He was seen by over 500 people before he went back into Heaven 40 days later.  If you research Roman records, it mentions Jesus's body "going missing" and there was a great hunt for it.  They never found it.

This was a free gift, one you can accept or reject. Nobody is forcing you, you come by your own accord as the spirit calls.  Thank you for listening.

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good men are punished because they are close to me. and I can take all the punishment any mortal can dish out. ...

those who aspire to be as I am must know what it is like. They must know how to do the right thing because it is the right thing, and for no other reason. They must be prepared to suffer for doing the right thing.

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Here are some of my thoughts:
At the end when Jesus says "My God, Why hast thou forsaken me" he has finally split from God and dies a human.  The whole time when he had faith and was being tortured, he couldn't die, he wouldn't let himself.  And since God could not allow (or it is impossible) for a human to "be divine", God tested Jesus's faith until he finally broke.  Anyways I'm not a Christian so I don't know if that is valid or what.

Highly recommended, a spiritual film.  Not on my "want to see again" list tho.

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infidelGOD said:
or are they just so insecure in their own faith that the very thought of someone not sharing their values erodes their faith in God?

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Mr_Mushrooms said:

I have learned a few things in the nearly 50 years I have spent studying on this planet.  I share very few of them.  I'll leave you to guess why.

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"cast not your pearls before swine..." ?

oink...