Originally Posted by GeddyBass2112

Unfortunately the fluid nature of many religious texts (including my own!) allow people to claim that whatever violence you care to name, from suicide bombings to wars and murders, are license to kill, injure and destroy 'in the name of God'. You've also got the major issue that different denominations and different groups accept some texts to be more important to others, or reject completely some books/chapters/readings, such as Christian denominations and the debate about the Apocrypha, or the Muslim groups who reject the Hadith (there are a growing number of groups who do this).

It wasn't just the evolution thing which struck me but the constant keeping happy of this group by our ministers and lay preachers. They constantly wanted the worship band to stick to 'traditional' songs rather than what they termed 'throw-away' modern songs (I was in the worship band so this annoyed me because no-one else had an issue with the songs we did), they didn't like things like the youth groups' annual service (where all the children of the church did the entire service), complaining that it was 'out of character for the church' (it consisted of things like song/dance acts, plays, shorter sermons than the normal service and only a small worship music section). I personally thought it good to encourage the kids to do it.

Originally Posted by Il Duce

I think you're more concerned about people than God. There's more to Christianity than just the traditional right-wing dogmatism in the mainstream churches. Those are just issues made by people who think they have God in them but they don't.

I see a lot of my fellow Christians being just mindless automatons, reading mindless self-perpetuating books concerning right-wing views.

Take it from me - Chrisitianity is a lot deeper that what strawman would like to have us believe, and in a way, they themselves perpetuate the Marxian quote "religion is the opiate of the people".

I suggest you read something like "The Transmigration of Timothy Archer" to get a better idea of Christianity, especially Gnostic Christianity before so easily dismissing Jesus.

Originally Posted by GeddyBass2112

English isn't my first language and I struggle sometimes to say what I'm trying to say.

Originally Posted by GeddyBass2112

For me the issue stems not just from just any one set of churches or people but the entirety of the bassis of the Christian church. The Arian heresy, the countless early Christian sects with their wildly differing views on Scripture, the Council of Nicea deciding what was the 'official' doctrine of the early Church, then the copious ommissions of supposedly pseudoepigraphical texts from the official canon of Bible books (including the Gospels of Thomas, Nicodemus and Judas, although I'm assuming that last one to actually be authentic)- the whole thing seems to me like a complete and utter mess. To my mind, any religion rooted in such a system seems to be of dubious veracity.

Not trying to insult your own or indeed anyone else's beliefs, and apologize if this post sounds harsh or rude but to me this is the biggest roadlblocks to me (re)accepting Christian doctrine for myself.

I also apologize in advance if my language seems odd. English isn't my first language and I struggle sometimes to say what I'm trying to say.

I will however do some reading as you suggest.