Still a Christian - ask me questions/tell me about yourselves

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

[I've never heard anyone say someone is or was as "crazy as a bedbug" - that's good, I'll use that, though I'm sorry to hear about your mom's uncle. 

Don't be sorry - he was a delightful old fellow.

These are good examples, actually, and regarding Vishnu and Hinduism, requires more of a philosophical discussion as a different religion. The Zeus revelation is interesting because Zeus brings us into all of Greek mythology, and we can say now that, based on what we can observe of nature, there is no guy throwing lightning bolts. The sun is not pulled by someone in a chariot. And so on.]

You miss my point.  It doesn't matter what sort of gods people claim they've interacted with, but that the claim of such interaction doesn't constitute proof or even compelling evidence.  You might try doing a search for 'Jesus myth'.

The key word is "wish", which is what makes the love of God so astonishing, because it's hard to love someone who doesn't love you and reach out to them. That's why God wishes it to happen and gives us time for repentance (2 Peter 3:9 in a nutshell).]

I admit to being guilty of a misquote.  The word isn't 'wishes' but 'wills'.  If it is God's will that all 'come to repentance and be saved (same verse), then how can anyone not be saved?  This leads more or less directly to the much thornier issue of God creating people for the sole purpose of damning them, but that's for another time.

I never said we can know God entirely in this life, that's what part of an eternal life in Heaven is for. And we're never called to know God entirely, that's not Biblical, but we can get a better idea and better reflect that in our lives

Seems rather a mug's game, doesn't it?  Like buying a house sight unseen, or agreeing to an arranged marriage and hoping for the best.
***declining to respond to the bit about 'His word***

Of course not, but these were the guys who directly knew Jesus, who was really about honesty, so dying for the sake of a guy who cared about honesty when you know he was lying, among other teachings of morality (basically, I'm really paraphrasing the stuff Jesus preached) when they knew it was a lie is HIGHLY unlikely. From all 12, nonetheless. Not proof, but compelling as far as a piece of evidence, considering how hard it is to die for something you believe in, let alone something you know to be blatantly false.]

Again, you mistake my meaning.  If the Gospel tales hold even a modicum of biography, the apostles believed what Jesus had to say.  What I'm saying is that their belief doesn't make what Jesus was telling them necessarily true.  The could simply have been self-deluded into thinking it was true.  I've no doubt that the  900-odd poor sods in Jonestown didn't think Jim Jones was a liar - they believed sincerely.  But they believed a lie and it cost them their lives.
Boru