Mark Dugdale, here is a little food for thought...
1) The conversation between Nicodemus & Jesus is an invention (keep in mind John 3:16, the cornerstone of Christianity, is within this portion of the text too). Why?
Jesus says "You must be born from above." (2:22)
Nicodemus misunderstands him to mean "You must be born again."
This makes perfect sense in GREEK, since the word for "from above" also means "again."
However, it makes NO contexual sense in ARAMAIC, the actual language Jesus spoke.
Case in point ... the conversation never took place.
It should be attributed to the creativity of an anonymous Greek scribe.
Many of the "non-scholarly" Biblical translations change this around completely in order to try to circumvent a glaringly obvious problem. It just goes to show that Christians have no qualms with forgery, unauthorized license to edit, and every/any subversive means of trying to keep a rapidly unraveling lie in-tact.
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2) Most of the Pauline epistles are documented pseudepigrapha...
... meaning, the apostle Paul DID NOT ACTUALLY WRITE many of the epistles.
Every serious scholar is well aware that the vocabulary characteristic of the epistles was more modern than it was in Paul's lifetime.
Its the equivalent of trying to claim a document that contains phrases like
"Damn homie that n*gga got jacked" or "he pwned that n00b" was written in 1700.
The vocabulary alone can be used to invalidate claims of authenticity.
The style of Greek present in the majority of the epistles simply wasn't present until well after Paul's lifetime.
By the way, 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, Ephesians, 1 & 2 Timothy, AND Titus were not written by Paul, though quite clearly claim to be in the introduction of the text. I don't know about you, but I'm not about to take stock in a theology purported as truth where the author not only lies about his identity, but assumes the identity of a famous, prominent, historical apostle.
That said, I can cite a plethora of other reasons attesting to the fallacy of this myth that is popularly known as Christianity.
(Feel free to message me privately or inquire right here in the thread for details).
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You are an outstanding athlete Dugdale, and fortunately, you can continue to inject anabolic steroids with a conscience as clear as day - since a Creator that doesn't exist and a lunatic who believed that the kingdom of God, accompanied with the shaking of the Earth and the falling of the stars, would come to Earth in the lifetime of his apostles (LOL ... nearly 2000 years ago) certainly won't hold you accountable for your actions.
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(sidenote:)
By the way, the "anti-christ" was Nero...
666 was the numerical value of Nero's name.
When "Caesar Nero" is spelled in Hebrew letters (Nero becomes Neron), ihe numerical total equates to 666. If the name is spelled without the "n" at the end, simply "Nero", the number is 616, since 'n' is worth 50 in the Hebrew numerical system.
As I'm sure you know, some of the ancient Greek manuscripts cite 616 instead.
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I don't state this to incriminate, I state this to educate.
