I typed a huge resonse, but then my computer ate it when I tried to post, so I'm going to quickly summarize my veiws here:
1) Excluding the apocrypha The Holy Bible Bible is pretty much the only source of information on Jesus's life. If early christians fucked up on the details, what makes you think they got any of it right? If Jesus was the Son of God, why would an omniscient, loving diety who allready sent his only begotten son to die for us allow the only record we have of it to become so corrupted?
2) It's an intellectual cop-out to claim that you only follow Jesus. It's healthier than following the whole bible, but you really aren't following Jesus, you're following (at least) four different guys ideas about him and those guys can't even keep their story straight. When you say stuff like that, it honestly it sounds more like you're clinging to the last thread of an illogical religion simply because it was drilled into your brain as a child and you can't bear to let it go. I understand and I sympathize, but that doesn't make it true, and that won't stop me from confronting you about it.
I would expect no less from anyone I considered a friend were the tables turned.
3) Saya keeps making straw men of my arguments. I do not want to outlaw religion, ban the bible, or hold moderates "spiritually responsible" for the actions of Radicals. I want people to keep their religion out of politics. Since such a vast amount of Christians (especially Americans) refuse to do this, and these people cannot be reasoned with, the only option is to stand up and expose the bible for what it is.
4) The Bible is a rambling mass of contradictions and patently ridicoulous supernatural stories which derives it's authority from the commands of an invisible man in the sky. There's some nice stuff that Jesus said, but the stories about him are internally inconsistant, and only account for about 1/3-1/4 of the actual text, the rest centering around blind submission and obedience to an invisible man in the sky who loves you but will torment you for all eternity if you fail to follow his commands/worship Jesus. All of this is published together, under the same cover, which in and of itself discourages Cherry-picking.
6) All of Jesus's teachings that Saya and HP have pointed to as their reasoning behind believing in them, can be found elsewhere. Why not just follow the teachings and ignore the supernatural mumbo jumbo and throw the book out the window? It will be healthier for future generations to be divorced from the idea of Jesus's divinity, and his moral and ethical teachings will remain in-tact without encouraging those pesky extremists.
7) We are currently living in what is really the first age when one can freely make the arguments I have without fear of Death/Suppression. Therefore these arguments need to be made and Atheists need to make their voices heard. Especially since, with the exception of
Scientologists,
we are the most widely dispised group in the United States. This is because too few of us speak up out of politeness, and many Christians don't realize just how insane their holy books really are.