The concept of the Trinity long predates Christianity. It existed in Egypt and in Babylon, long before Christianity, as did the notion of the "virgin birth" and of a divine "Son of God" from that birth. Christianity adopted a whole set of previous "pagan" beliefs and dressed them in slightly different semantic clothes and put those clothes around the life story of Jesus.

This is something seldom known and seldom acknowledged by Christians. Their religion is a rehash and mishmash of previous pagan religions. They don't want to know about it. ;-)

When I use the word "pagan", I do not mean "bad", by the way...I simply mean pre-Christian (and not Jewish either).



"to the extent that we value our similarities, our god will be the same whereas, to the extent that we value the differences between us, our gods will be different."

Right on. That is the key.

Your friend, kendall, is making the common error of focusing on and valuing the differences. That leads to discord.