richy, I am a Christian, but as I explained, don't believe several parts of the Bible. God never asked anyone to write a book, and neither did Jesus. The eye witness accounts in the New Testament, probably, have some veracity to them, but even so, the authors' had every opportunity to inject their own, personal, Thoughts and ideas.
A person does not need the Bible to be a Christian. Christianity is more based on the basis of one teaching of Jesus, and that is do to others as you would have them do to you. Admittedly, I do not always follow that to everyone, but my beliefs in Christianity, and the principles at it's core, are strong.
I don't like denominations. If every one followed the teachings of Jesus, there would be no reason for all the differences espoused by the different denominations, which were formed so that mere mortals could control a congregation with their own, personal agendas.
Quite a few of the "Fathers of our country" were deists, and Paine's writings seem to indicate that he also followed that path, which has no denominational aspects. |
