text: This is a different answer than many you will receive.  If you dont' want any remaining preconceptions challenged DO NOT CONTINUE READING.\n\n-----\n\nNow if you are still with me.  The Bible is, while a very nice book that is the basis (in one form or another) the basis of the three great monotheistic faiths of the West -- actually a book of myths, and some of them are pretty horrid myths.\n\nThe earth is not flat, it does not have corners, and it is not established on pillars.  Beetles do not have four legs, they have six.  Rabbits do not chew their cuds, they have none.  Ai and Jericho were both abandoned when the Israelites came to them and Jericho NEVER was walled.  Oddly, though a million Jews (more or less) marched around the wilderness for 40 years and ALL died there, we cannot find a single skeleton from the march, even though we have found the remains of tribes of 200 non-semites in the same area. Pi really DOES work, and a perfectly round pool cannot be made that uses a pi of 3.0 rather than 3.14 -- it would leak through a gap in the side.\n\nThe god of the old testament, almost certainly either a rendition of one of the great Annunaki of the Sumerians or of Ra of the Egyptians, is a monster who cannot possibly deserve worship, even if real.  He accepts human sacrifice, demands genocides, and wipes the faces of his priests with dung.  He is, in very real terms, anthropomorphic, having a palace on top of the firmament (the dome covering the earth) where he keeps snow and hail "against the time of troubles"  (war???)  [If you want to read up on this type of thing, there is a fair list on the site I maintain.  Go to www.rebuff.org and read the three pages under bible on the left hand menu.]\n\nThe short version of what I am saying is -- its myth.  Fairy stories, like Grimm's and like Santa Claus.  Furthermore, Christianity, despite what you have been told, was not HISTORICALLY based on the Bible as you know it.  The canon was not established universally in anything resembling a form you would recognize until the Council of Carthage, hundreds of years after Christ.  The early church had 40 gospels, but no one church had more than one book or maybe a very few.  Often a gospel, or a letter -- or sometimes nothing at all.  Different bishops wrote different canons, just as they had different theologies (gnostic/anti-gnostic for example). The Council of Nice (Nicea) established the creed by vote, and many things (trinity) won by only one or two votes.  Divine inspiration?  Not unless you count assasination, quite a few occurred connected to Nice and to Carthage.\n\nThe idea that the Bible is infallible is no different from the idea the Pope is, and it is even newer.  \n\nSo, should you be concerned?  No.  If you want a Christian community to belong to then, if you are protestant, look for a United Church of Christ congregation, or a morelight presbyterian, or contact me and I will suggest more.  If you are wanting to experiment with a more traditional liturgy, try calling your local Episcopal diocese and asking to be recommended to a parish that is welcoming to gays.  Don't be afraid, just ask.  If you are near Pittsburgh -- maybe not, that bishop is nuts, so is ours in Albany but not so badly -- most are ok.\n\nHope that all helps.  Don't worry, you won't go to hell.  God knows that the Bible is a myth.\n\nRegards,\n\nReynolds Jones\nSchenectady, NY\nhttp://www.rebuff.org