Oh, I don't mind people atoning for unintentional "sins" if they want to. Fine with me. That's up to them.

I am simply raising a philosophical question here: Would God punish people for unintentional sins? If so, why? What good would it do? I think it's worthwhile for people to ask themselves and others such questions.

I grew up to eventually question every basic assumption that was put in front of me when I was a child...no matter who it had come from. I discovered that a lot of those assumptions were based on nothing real whatsoever, while others were founded on solid groung.

It puzzles me when other people do not question the basic assumptions of their culture. How will they ever learn to think originally and clearly if they don't? And how will they escape the automatic prejudices and misconceptions that are passed on IN every culture?

Or maybe they don't want to?

One more question: Why does anyone need an organized religion to have a relationship with God?

I ask that because Dave asked: "Do you love your religion more or your possesions? How strong are your beliefs?"

Interesting point, Dave. I would say this. I love my own personal ability to think and reason and arrive at my own judgement on things better than I love the idea of belonging to an organized religion that tells me what to think.   

I believe that God would rather I use my own intelligence than have someone else think for me and just do what they say.

When people follow what is in the Torah or any other ancient religious text they are merely following what someone else wrote down a very long time ago. No one can prove that that someone else was a literal scribe for God and that God agrees NOW with everything that someone else wrote way back then. Furthermore, no one can prove that God hasn't altered some of the friggin' rules of practical daily life in the last few thousand years as the conditions in human society changed!

And I am suggesting that a God who was sane and rational most certainly would have altered some of the rules between now and 4,000 years ago in the Middle East in a society with no refrigerators, etc.... It's just laughable to think otherwise, as a matter of fact.

For people to tie themselve to 4,000-year-old thoughts is a form of mental paralysis. The world changes, and we change with it.