> I personally don't really mind people who try to change my religious beliefs.
> [snip]
> ...I actually like such discussions because they allow me to re-analyze my own beliefs and see if they're still justifiable to myself. If they are, then such discussions merely act to strenthen my beliefs. If they aren't, then I try and figure out *why* they aren't. And if I figure that out, I can make my own beliefs better. In this way, I must say that I actually *like* attacks on my beliefs -- as long as they are logical and well thought out attacks, that is.

Well said, and I feel the same way. Truly, I'm not interested in being a Christian if the core elements of the Christian confession are wrong. Those claims happen to have stood up (to my satisfaction thus far) to a barrage of trials and scrutiny over the last couple of centuries, much of it from within the church itself. I often wonder how Islam, for example, will fare when it hits its own "Enlightenment" and Islamic scholars begin to pick apart the historicity of Mohammed's visions and so forth. Christians have resisted such scrutiny from without and within, but in the long run these challenges are healthy for the faith. If it is shown to be false, why cling to it?

Iss