I believe that by your standards I am a pagan, heathen, atheist or worse. By mine I am a staunch believer.

If you have usurped the word "God" to mean the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible's Old Testament you couldn't be more correct. In my mind that creature does not exist, is a fabrication, is an unworthy belief for people over the age of 20, useless as a means of understanding the nature of that which is beyond Man.

I do happen to believe that Jesus was as close to God as any human gets. If one reads the red print of the New Testament it is clear He was as enlightened as Buddha, for instance.

By the way, using red print for Jesus' words is a convention in some Bibles.

I believe there is "God" which can be described but not as long as people insist on confusing that "God" with the "God bless you" of priests or politicians, the "God" as understood as the Santa Claus in the sky keeping track of good and bad or the First Cause. Paul Tillich, a renowned Luthern (Protestant, Christian) theologian, in "The Courage To Be" suggests that to understand "God" one must forget the name. It's too garbaged up by aforesaid priest and politicians to be compatible with "God". And the "Courage" in the title refers to the willingness to challenge childhood teachings and live without the crutch of believing there is a Big Daddy in the Sky who is obsessed with us individually. Rabbi's, by the way, are almost as bad.

There are great people of all faiths, people who have transcended the pettiness. I regard Desmond Tutu as possibly the greatest living human, and certainly the greatest of whom I've heard. His reconcilliation in South Africa is worthy of Christ. And is not "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" but forgiveness times 7+.

And if you looked closely you'd see that my hostility is directed at those who are cruel and inhumane in pursuit of their selfish goals. Evil by the definition used by M. Scott Peck in his book "People of The Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil". My methods are usually short-sighted and self-defeating, I'll agree. And blinds people like you to the message behind them. That's a loss for both of us.

Arf