If they all agreed on one thing, there would only be one brand of christianity.

Wait, if I read this board then I must conclude that all Christians believe the exact same thing and it is atheists that are the beautiful unique flowers... now I'm confused... I wish the defectives on this board were consistent...

Uncivil, derogatory, inflammatory and posts not worthy of debate split to Inferno.

I might add: D9, there aren't 1000's of brands of xianity, there are TENS OF THOUSANDS (over 30,000 and counting).  there are also the ones that were violently suppressed by other so-called 'orthodoxed' (or 'true') churches.  for example, the gnostic texts are as valid as the ones that were voted into the bible, but the more powerful churches were able to suppress these texts and force them into hiding by branding the gnostics as heretics and themselves as spokesmen for god. thus is the birth of the catholic church.
btw, the gnostic texts are no more or less reliable than the other gospels. one must apply equal skepticism to all - but the gnostic texts don't mention a bodily resurrection (and many died as martyrs).
if you have two claims you need to consider the likelihood of both.

it is more likely, though highly improbable, that Jesus had a twin brother than that he rose from the dead. it is even MORE likely that he died and rose SYMBOLICALLY from the dead.

This is untrue. You stated all people who believe in a God believe in prayer and faith. Well I believe in the existence of a God and do not believe in prayer or faith (faith in the way it was used in the sentence.) Most other deists would probably agree with me on this point. Unfortunately (though it is to no fault of your own) I fear that religion has hijacked the concept of God and any time God is ever used it is never used in any other way other then in a religious sense which angers me greatly.

my guess is that you D9 never had children.... and if you did they obviously thought that they were bad b/c they never got a visit from the tooth fairy, the easter bunny or santa claus, I am also guessing they never got to go trick or treating either.  *sigh* or maybe just maybe you weren't allowed to as a child.

Either way you're bitter about Christianity and think it's make believe, maybe you're right though, just maybe it is all make believe and all made up but really, I don't push my beliefs down your throat nearly as much as you try to throw yours at me.

All the shit-talking is a little much, IMO, but the basic concept of the thread isn't bad.

I've seen crazy, and sane brands of Christianity.

When I was young, my mother took us to a "non-denominational" (read:fundamentalist) baptist church. The church was independent, and somewhat backwards. I attended a book burning at the age of six. The texts being burned were NIV, NKJ and other Bibles beside the King James (OG in the hizzy!), as well as some children's picture books (based on that abominable NIV) and your garden variety *heretical* novels (anything that didn't praise the name of god on every other page). Women were banned from playing volleyball (not supposed to be wearing pants, or shorts, can't jump up and down in a skirt).

The methodist church where my father's mother played piano was quite sane though. They had some nice church picnics, and the sermons gave me the impression that the people there were much more happy about their faith than the book-burners.

The idea that I took away from that experience is that I don't have any right to tell someone what is proper to hold as beliefs, or what to call themselves. Based on chain of events that led to two church split-ups that led us to the fundamentalists, I would say it is a bad thing to be ideologically rigid.

I do not call myself a Christian. I think the teachings of Jesus Christ are relevant and very useful to a large degree, and I see great benefit that can come from heeding them. I do not believe in a virgin birth and I do not believe that Jesus Christ was the son of god any more than I am (under the concept of "god" that makes sense to me). On a very basic level, I would assert that no-one has the right to dictate to someone else what they need to believe to be considered a Christian.

The way I define it though, I am not. Belief in the divinity of JC and the resurrection story, etc were what I learned as the cornerstones of the faith. That, and acceptance of JC was what I was taught all Christians agree on.