I was raised by my parents who took me to Sunday School and Church every Sunday (including inclement weather conditions) except when we were on vacation, until I graduated from high school and left home for college.
Needless to say, I heard all the religious stories, parables, and lessons multiple times throughout the years I was forced to attend.
When in college, there was a requirement that we take SIX HOURS of Religion courses in order to graduate and sometime between the ages of 50-60, I read the Bible, cover to cover (slowly) and took notes that were later saved to a CD.
I am not a religious scholar, but I am familiar with religion and its teachings.
My research into THEORETICAL PHYSICS, COSMOTOLOGY, ANCIENT ALIENS, COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS, GLOBAL MYTHOLOGIES, and QUANTUM MECHANICS have led me to believe that I should not believe everything written in the Bible.
In fact, while I question religion, I do believe in a creator, oddly enough. My creator might be this God/Jesus talked about in the Bible and while a virgin birth is possible, the birth was that of NOT A HUMAN BEING, but an EXTRATERRESTRIAL, who later, it was claimed, spoke the following words:
MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD...
In all the hours sitting through sermons in Church, all ministers, pastors, and priests always led the congregation to believe that this statement MEANT HEAVEN.
My thinking is that it meant the UNIVERSE, or perhaps another:
When God appeared as a BURNING BUSH or a THUNDERSTORM CLOUD in the Bible, no one ever considered the possibility of a multi-dimensional entity entering a three-dimensional world and what that might look like.
While THE MATRIX was a well-produced film and the writer developed a very clever concept, I am not convinced that we are currently living in a matrix. However, we are living in a WORLD, inside a SOLAR SYSTEM, inside a GALAXY, inside a UNIVERSE that we really DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Nor can be adequately explain its origins or its creation.
It is this understanding that leads me to believe that there is a CREATOR or some sort.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the TEN COMMANDMENTS. They are ten items that we all should live by if we are to co-exist here on earth. That will never be in dispute. Following them will always be disputed.
We are told to believe and serve because we were given life and will be given eternal life if we continue to believe and serve. However, in order to believe and serve, we must GIVE UP OUR FREE WILL...
What kind of tradeoff is that?
After death, we are only a SPIRIT... an ESSENCE if you will... like a PUFF OF SMOKE.
What kind of eternal life will a spirit have?
Was the body of Jesus WHOLE and SOLID once he resurrected?