(November 5, 2010 at 6:44 pm)Chuck Wrote: Let's not conflate the existence of a person named Jesus with the existence of a Jesus who can evenhandedly be said to be worth noting in any way due to his own verifiable merits and acheivements. christians so like to pull the sleight of hand that offers you the former while insisting that you accept him as the latter that this piece of deceit has almost become the basic law of christian logic.
But if the verifiable substance of that you worship defines the merit of the worship, then you would do exactly as well by attributing whatever characteristic most impress you onto any person from history who existed but about whom you really know next to nothing, and worship that person instead.
So I suggest you take a walk though the most dilapidated grave yard you can find, pick a name off of an arbitrary gravestone, assert that person to be divine, attributing whatever impresses you upon that person, and worship him/her as your personal savior.
The Jewish nation nor christianity has ever asserted that God is divine, God in all His righteousness has given us that fact if in no other forms than creation and the redemption of that creation after man brought destructive sin into it.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.