It seems to me the whole point of the Christian narrative is the assertion that human beings have a propensity to do things to other human beings that are not very nice. If you focus your attention on doing things (or not doing things) to others that you would (or would not) want done to you, then you achieve a state of righteousness and your job becomes telling others to focus their attention.

Am I missing anything?

Good, now that that's handled, what do you say we look at this whole spirituality thing from a context of here and now, and see what we come up with? I say we throw out the Bible, the Koran, etc. and really inquire into what's possible for a human being who's alive and living right now.

Bibles? We don't need no stinking Bibles.

Here are a few assertions I'll throw out to start the conversation...

1) Everything is sacred... not some things. There is good in everyone Ñ even Osama Bin Laden and Pat Robertson.

2) Good and Evil is a paradigm that can be transcended. Do it and you operate in a larger context.

3) Believe all you want, but there's no way you can prove the existence of God, the afterlife, etc.

4) Religion has worked because people had nothing to lose and everything to gain by believing.

That ought to do it for starters.

Peace, love and joy to all. Miracles happen when you discover something you never imagined could exist.

Matt

Just have to say for #4) Religion is a broad term. Many mythical religions believed only in an afterlife of Hades, or the Underworld for mortals. Christianity on the other hand was an early mystery religion, and was one of the first religions to profess a positive afterlife. So it drew many people to it.

#1) Theres no changing those two.

This topic reminds me of the John Lennon song "Imagine"