Tarheel, all religions came into being in order that certain people in a certain time, place, and culture could approach what they called "God" or "Yahweh" or "Allah" or "Wakan Tanka" or "Father" or "Mother" or "Tao" or "the Absolute" or "the Divine" or "the Infinite" or "life"...in a way that was meaningful and helpful to them. That naturally varied from one time and place to another, because people vary, and their way of expressing themselves varies.

Obviously the particular way you have chosen to do that suits you. That's fine with me. I gather, though, that other ways which differ in word or detail from the one you are most familiar with are not fine with you. Too bad. People are often...I should say, usually...exclusive and conditional in their love, Tarheel. God is neither. God is non-denominational and is confined to any one church, holy book, prophet, or specific religion.

This means your way of believing is okay with me, but mine is probably not with yours...despite the fact that we no doubt share the same basic spiritual ideals! That is a great shame, if you ask me.

People are not "sinners", they are learners on the path of experience...and they do make mistakes while going through the learning process. Those mistakes are referred to as "sin" by people who have bought into the idea of living life with a massive guilt complex ("We're not worthy! We're not worthy!). It's a ridiculous attitude, it does not come from God, and it is of no help to humanity to wallow in such a self-abusive notion in the first place. The value in mistakes is that they alert you to the fact that there is a better way. This is good. Without mistakes, in fact, no one learns anything.

Your God is not a jealous God. He does not get angry and consign "sinners" to Hell. It's people who do stuff like that.

You're right about one thing though...people who type more than an hour's worth of words here a day DO need to get a life! :-) And that includes me...