[mburbank]

Naldo; It's one thing to tell people who don't think of themselves as Christian they aren't and something totally other to call Proto, who conciders hiomself to be one not. You know that. To lump him in with Jews, Hindus, Moslems and Agnostics is insulting, arrogant and prideful. But since you admitted your opinion on this is useless, why state it, other than to elevate yourself.

Eternal solitude. Gol' that sounds way better than a lake of fire. Which is it exactly? Cause a God that just gives you eternal solitude, that doesn't sound quite so awful as literal burning without consumption. But maybe that whole lake of fire thing is just a metaphor. Hmmmm.

as to my level of pride, you wouldn't know it if it bled to deatth for you on a cross. A simple test. The Almighty, by it's very nature cannot be understood by the mortal mind. Therefore, it's possible I could be totally wrong about jesus and you totally right. I sincerely hope not, but I admit I cannot comprehend Gods mind. Now make the same statement, in reverse. Maybe Jesus wasn't Christ.

Can't do it? Here's an easier one. Try saying (truthfully) maybe that George Bush is totally pulling the wool over my eyes. Maybe I'm dead wrong and this war against Iraq is based solely on lies and a lot of innocent suffering people will die awful deaths paid for in part by my tax dollars while I stood on the sidelines cheering like a Laker Girl and slept easily.

I'm perfectly willing to say that maybe Bush et al have all the evidence they say they have, that my lack of trust is just the product of paranoia, that war is the only way to go. I mean it, too. The possability I'm wrong plays a very large factor in my reasoning, and I don't sleep so easily. I never come to any conclusion without spending a lot of time thinking about what the other side thinks and what it means if they're right. Doubt is good. That's why Jesus let thomas stick his fingers in His wounds isnead of saying "Gol, if you don't accept me, I guess you go to hell" That's why it took something that viceral and nasty to constitute proof. It might be a metaphor, but it's a good one. Oh, and it can be 'interpreted' more ways than one, if you don't agree with my 'judegment' of the story.