[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Ruminator

Obviously these people were not following Jesus' teachings, or his disciples in their actions. Jesus' disciples suffered horrendous deaths in the process of teaching others of Jesus' teachings.

The issue has always been whether Christianity is the church of Christ or of his followers. Paul's teachings have always been the most controversial and, intentionally or not, the cause of the most grief to women and non-Christians. Here is a good article on that.

Originally Posted by Ruminator

What other religion can come even close to showing their fellow man the love and care that christians have over the centuries?

Um, Buddhism? Being Jewish, I have to say that the 'love and care' of Christians is a double edged sword. Your argument seems to be that essentially any bad behavior by Christians is by definition 'un-Christian'. This is the crux of the apology given by Pope John Paul II - that even if bad acts were committed by church leaders using church resources and followers, the church is a construct of G-d and by that definition incapable of error, and the responsibility for those acts falls upon individuals.

By this reasoning, no religion or religious organization is ever wrong. This is actually true if one considers that to be the view of the followers. Faith has a dark side, as the people who didn't drink the Kool Aid will tell you.

One argument for having no religious institutions is that it would validate the Pope's statement by truly putting responsibility for the relationship with man and G-d with each individual. There would either be no religious wars because no religious or secular leaders could lay claim to any faithful, or there would be a huge melee as individuals 'defended' their unique vision of the divine.

Originally Posted by Ruminator

I don't understand "FSM"?

FSM = :"Flying Spaghetti Monster" a satirical construct intended to demonstrate the folly of attempting to confuse faith with science. In short, the existence of G-d will always remain unproven by any scientific measure. Therefore, any one view of any deity is equally valid. G-d could be a white haired Caucasian, a woman, or a flying Spaghetti Monster.