Originally Posted by Z

Another friend hit me up on IM and asked this same question, here's the answer.

The old testament is easier to pick on because it was written in a more forthright, "this is how it is, do what we say" time. The new testament is a collection of letters supposedly written by various disciples of Christ and other "luminaries". Though many were "written" hundreds of years after those people died or were "collected" by scribes and monks then for later inclusion in what would become the bible by the popular vote at the Council of Nicaea. Of course, that leaves the screaming question of what got left out or edited to be left in. I'd encourage you to check out the Gnostic bible, "The Bible Tells Me So", and several other books for that answer.

Modern day, quasi liberal (by fundamentalist standards) Christians consider the old testament more of an inconvenience than anything else, a reminder of a much less PC time. They're happy to use it when they need a good "fire and brimstone" punchline or "honor thy father and mother" commandment for Junior when he's no longer buying into Dad's bullshit. But they shy away from it when they're telling "God Loves You" stories in Sunday school because it's a bit hard to say "Thou shalt not kill" with all the slaughter and genocide in God's name so eloquently laid out in the old testament.

What it comes down to is that Christianity in all it's varieties preys on the weak minded and weak willed. It allows a complete exclusion of personal responsibility and consequences for your actions by "laying your sins on Jesus".

At one point, I really respected Donny. Unfortunately, he fell on hard times and they found him during them. Now he's trying desperately to convince himself that he's on the right path. Good luck to him in his search. But that doesn't mean he needs to come back here and try to recruit more sheep. If he insists on trying, he should expect somebody to come out and call him on his bullshit.