Very interesting comments, AR282. I see you've really given the matter some serious thought. Good for you.

Now I'm curious about your emotional motivations, because those are what really drive all people. It's what drives us to be deeply interested in a subject or totally uninterested in it. It's what drives us to be hostile to a general subject or not.

It's plain to see you're pretty hostile toward Christianity. Why?

In my case, having grown up in an atheistic family, I had little reason to be hostile to the church...except that I picked up a lot of little hints from my parents that religious people were...not very smart...naive...a few cards short of a deck...etc. Not that they spoke about it frequently, it was just kind of an undertone.

Accordingly, I viewed the churches with a certain amount of amused contempt when I was young, but I didn't have a visceral hatred for them...and I get the impression that you do.

Were you subjected to a lot of pressure to be religious when you were young? I find that it is that, rather than anything Jesus ever taught (or was reputed to) that turns people so bitterly against religion that they spend the rest of their lives spewing tirades against it.

And I can understand that. I was subjected to complete other kinds of pressure when I was young. As a result, I don't harbour a grudge against Jesus or Christianity. I think you do. I mean, hey, it's totally obvious that you do. ;-)

I think it is that grudge that makes you want to believe that Jesus never existed. If you didn't hate the Christian religion so much, it probably never would have even occurred to you to adopt such a belief.

You are absolutely right that kings, from Constantine on, cynically used the church for all it was worth to consolidate and enlarge their power. You betcha. That's what politicians do (unless they're Communists, in which case they do the exact opposite).

That, however, is not Jesus' fault (if he existed) and it in no way impinges on the value of his orginal teachings. It simply proves that politicians are generally corrupt and greedy for power. They will use the church either as an ally...or a scapegoat to blame things on. Whatever suits their gameplan.