Ernest, I'm still trying to figure out why wml is fixated on Jesus and Bible thumping. He's the one who brought him into this branch. You merely responded to his post.

I strongly suspect he's not atheist, but anti-Christian (no pun intended). I don't blame him there; I don't have much use for many of today's self-proclaimed Christians.

wml, to better understand Ernest, these are his words (exerpted from this post: http://tinyurl.com/2g5pfm).

Christ came with a message of love - he reduced the ten commandments to two - 1/. Love they God with all thy heart, body, mind, and soul; 2/. Love they neighbour as yourself.

Paulians follow the teachings of the apostle Paul, these teachings are his interpretations of Christ's teachings, and they do vary a lot. Most of the main stream Christian churches have a lot of Paulian teachings in them as they are based on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church which is very Paulian. The main points of variation between Christianity and Paulianity are:

1. Christ taught that every person has the right to speak with, and receive revelation from, God. Each has the same authority to speak to God and to spread his word.

The Paulians are authoritive and teach that only those who are ordained ministers have any authority to speak on God's behalf, and the higher up you are in the church, the more authority you have, and the more righteous you are. This leads into the teaching that the more righteous have more right to tell others how to behave. Thus the Bishop can tell priests and individuals what to do, etc.

2. Christ taught that he came to save the sinners. Paulians teach that the righteous have the right to order the sinners about.

3. Christ taught that we have free will and can choose to follow God's teachings or not. Paulians teach that we should all follow God's teachings, as they see them, no matter what, and they have a right to make us do so.

4. Christ said that all that has gone before is now void. Thus, a true Christian follows the teachings of the New Testament, if you do then you follow the two commanments above and all of the ten commandments etc are rolled into them. Paulians teach that you should also follow the Old Testament rules and all its teachings. Nothing in the Old Testament over rules the teachings of the Gospels, yet the Paulians believe certain aspects do.

The Old Testament is there to show the authority of Christ through the prophecies related to him, and where the church came from. Nothing in the Old Testament is valid doctrine to a Christian, except where it is reinforced in the Gospels by Christ's teachings, then it's used to refine some aspects of Christ's teachings.

5. Christ taught that you should love everyone, including your enemies. Paulines teach you to hate people who disagree with you.

6. Christ taught that all those who believe in Christ shall be saved, he did not teach that they HAD to believe in him their entire life. He acknowledged that many would come to now and believe in him late in life, and they would be accepted and saved. He also taught that they had to come to him of their own free will and choice. Paulians teach that people must be made to believe.

If after this you still believe that Ernest (and by extension myself, as I agree substantially with Ernest here) are Bible thumpers, well, it's not our problem, is it?