The entire field of all existence and of all further potential possibilities can put up with anything, Don T, because it's not bothered by anything....including you! ;-) Or me either, for that matter...not to mention Greg F.

As for Jesus, I think people lay too much of a burden on him. They should have followed his example instead of turning him into an idol to worship.

Ian - I had an interesting discussion last week with a very bright woman who is a retired Anglican minister. She's a Christian, but she doesn't believe in the Resurrection in a physical sense. She thinks of it in a spiritual sense, that the soul probably survives bodily death...but she's not absolutely certain about that either. What do I think about the Resurrection? I don't know. There may have been a physical Resurrection of Jesus or there may have been a spiritual Resurrection of him or it may all be legendary...I can't say. I'm willing to consider the various possibilities rather than just issuing pat denials of them as many people would, but I wasn't there, so I simply can't say for sure, and I don't intend to believe things other people tell me just because they happen to believe those things for some reason that they can't really explain.

When I say that the above lady is a Christian, you may ask "What does she believe, then?" Briefly: she believes in the validity, great value, and general good sense of what Jesus taught and demonstrated about forgiveness, non-violence, not judging others, treating others as you would wish to be treated yourself, bravely confronting unjust forces in society, speaking the truth, being responsible, helping people in need, etc...and she has tried to follow his example and pattern her own life on his teachings. As I said, she's a very bright woman and a very independent thinker.

She does not believe a lot of the standard traditional Christian doctrine that's in the Bible such as the physical Resurrection, the "virgin" birth, the idea of Jesus being a "sacrifice" for humanity's sins, the idea that God is a male super-being, the idea that Adam and Eve were 2 people who started the whole human race, the idea that Noah took 2 of every kind of animal in the world into a giant boat and saved them...etc...and so on, and so on. She regards most of that stuff as either legends (many of which came from previous religions anyway)....or symbolic parables...or both.

This didn't prevent her from being a very capable Christian minister or from finding powerful meaning in what Jesus taught and demonstrated about conduct and morality.