a few thoughts on the matter at hand:

1. (for background) I'm non-denominational Christian, and I'm not going to believe in any specific version of it until I read the hebrew old testament, the greek new testament, the arabic Koran (I think that's the one with Allah). I am also a scientist at heart, so I will rarely believe totally in anything without definitive proof, question everything, and will alter my view on (provably valid) new evidence

2. Prove to me that your religion is true. Use everything you can, because you will probably need to. If you want, you could consider it an attempt to win a new convert if you want. (this includes my own religion)

3. For those who like to bash the bible in its entirety, think about this: an extremely large number of historians and scientists (even those who don't believe) consider the bible one of the most accurate and complete histories of the ancient world in its region(s).

4. (In correlation with #3) The bible has a strong historical, archaelogical, and scientific base (discounting the truly religious parts of it). In fact, even the ark's(the one that held the ten commandments) powers have an entirely plausible explanation: the instructions describe a large capacitator. Also, many of the places mentioned have been unearthed/discovered, and other archaelogical artifacts give evidence of the events in the bible (I believe there are Roman records mentioning Jesus' persecution/death). Most of the world has records (in one form or another) of the Great Flood, at approx. the same time the bible says it happened.

5. The translation errors from hebrew/greek to latin to english have likely mutilated the original text of the bible. Translating languages involves a large amount of interpretation, as different cultures rarely have words with the exact same meaning. To add to that, the translators were trying to fit it into a rather strict pattern (poetic verse with old english). For example: moses may not have parted the red sea, the true translation is the sea of reeds. (by the way, the parting, along with the plagues, was likely due to a tidal wave from a large volcanic eruption in the mediterranean sea and natural occurences disrupted by it)

6. Look up the bible codes in google (and make sure you read both sides of the argument)

7. Anyone else notice how Islam/Muslim contains large parts of the Christian bible contains large parts of the Jewish old testament?

8. No offense intended, but I find that the Catholic religion is filled with BS rules created by a power-hungry church. If anyone can show me good reasons for many of the rules and practices they have imposed, (at standards less than #1) I will respectfully retract this statement.

9. Don't think about what the bible says about gays, what does it say about how to treat them?

10. As part of my studies in science, I have come across some rather interesting information about how many personality traits (including homosexuality) can be in part(not in whole) attributable to genetics. Interestingly, the more older brothers from the same mother a guy has, the more likely he is to be gay. In fact, each older brother increases the probability by roughly 1/3. (this is attributable to an immune type reaction to the (male) baby in the (female) mother's womb, that increases with each successive male, decreasing the masculinisation of the brain (you see, babies are in fact parasites, and try to take over the mother's body)).

11. Why does this seem to be a largely Christian discussion? Is it because Christians are more prejudiced than others? probably...though I'd like to see some from other religions speak their mind (atheists not included)

12. The Muslim/Islamic religion was (when it was created) much more accepting than Christians have been the majority of the time they've been around. Mohammed actually told them to be tolerant of the other religions.

13. Supposedly, the hebrew torah has been so faithfully and accurately copied since it was first written down, that only 7-11 characters maximum have changed. I think the difference between the current version and the dead sea scrolls is only 0-3 characters.

14. I think this is enough for now, please post your thoughts on this, TIA