Maybe as a fairy tale the story does deserve respect banjoman. But why would anyone with any intelligence believe it? What was so special about the crucifixion of this particular messiah, compared with the crucifixion of another messiah (also on Pilate's orders) a few years later; or compared with thousands of other crucifixions during that period of Roman occupancy?

How did Christ's death guarantee me the certainty of eternal life with him? I can't see that God sacrificing his son was that much of a big deal, since he seems to have created that son specially to be sacrificed - so no great loss presumably. Why, in any case, would God have got himself into a position of having to sacrifice anything? But assuming for a moment that he had indeed got himself into that kind of fix, to whom was he making the sacrifice? Himself?

Think about it from God's point of view. His best creation so far, the human race, goes off the rails a bit. This calls for punishment. He's already done flooding, so maybe his thoughts turn to wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Here it's helpful to believe also in Satan, the SMERSH of the extra-terrestrial world.) But then he hits on a wonderful solution, breathtaking in its simplicity: create a son who can be murdered alongside all the other victimes of the naughty Romans, and that way the slate can be wiped clean for everyone. Except maybe Judas ("Judas" meaning "Jewish one").

My point to WYSI, in which I notice I had "ascend" as "accend," was a much smaller one. I thought it was Christ's ascension rather than his crucifixion that opened heaven to the rest of us. (Those earlier, Old Testament ascenders presumably had to hang around in limbo in the meantime.) Opinions differ between Paul and the gospel writers about whether Christ's ascension was six weeks after the crucifixion, or close upon his resurrection. But clearly it was not good Friday.