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11/16/2006: "Re: This is Mortimer Fontaine - website owner"

I didn't realise it was a joke, sorry if I over-reacted. I thought I'd post some comments about the points you raised in your post:

'1) You are a sinner. We all are.
In order to go to heaven, we must accept Jesus into our hearts. Otherwise you will go to Hell.'

It really all depends upon your perception of how things are. If you're a Christian, then you're going to believe that 'Jesus' is the only way to salvation. If you're Jewish, you will believe that keeping the commandments set down in the Torah, and believe in 'God'. Muslims have to follow the commandments of the Quran (or Koran), and have faith in 'Allah'. Sikhs believe in reincarantion, much like Hinduists and Buddhists. Pagans of all different denominations believe in many different 'Gods' and 'Goddesses', and many different versions of life after death and reincarnation. Many religions don't even have a 'Hell'. Christianity is one of the youngest religions, and has been derived from a combination of many different beliefs and faiths, most recognisably Judaism and Paganism. Just because one religion, out of the hundreds that exist, says that we have to believe in 'Jesus' (or Yeshua, as he was originally called) in order to avoid 'eternal damnation', does not mean that it is right. The concept of 'Sin' is not a universal one, and many religions disagree about what actually constitutes a 'sin'. Jews believe that eating pig is a sin, but Christians don't, even though they both have the same passage in their religious texts (do not be mistaken, Jesus did not rescind all the old commandments, but rather gave new ones ontop of the old ones. After all, he said that "It is far easier for both heaven and earth to pass away, than for one word of the Lord to be made false" or something to that effect (I haven't read that passage in many years.)).

'2) People are open to temptation.
Believing in "The Force" and not in Jesus will NOT get you into Heaven. People DO believe in the Force. Do a web search yourself. People in many English Speaking countries claim "Jedi" as their religion. That is FACT.'

I was well aware that many people call themselves "Jedi", and, looking over my previous posts, I realise I may have been slightly ambigious about my meaning. What I meant to say was that I, PERSONALLY, do not know anyone who claims to be a "Jedi". I am aware that people do believe this, and, as I said in my first post, anyone who does believe that The Force will save them in a car-crash, (which was an example a person used on one of your videos on Youtube (not sure who it was, though).) deserved to die for putting their faith in a 'higher power'. Not only are people claiming to be "Jedi", but some also claim to be "Sith". But what you're neglecting to look at, is that many people, in English-speaking countries, also claim to be Christian, or Muslim, or Jewish, or Hindu, or Sikh, or Buddhist, or Pagan, or one of hundreds of different faiths, not all of whom can be correct. I'm not saying that Jedi are correct, but I'm not saying that Christianity is necessarily correct either. As I said above, Christianity is one of the youngest religions in the world, and is a mix-match of many different ceremonies, stories, and beliefs. The oldest religions in the world are the Pagan ones (not to be confused with Neo-Pagans, who are a different, more modern sect), and, as such, if any religion were to be true, it would probably be theirs, because, as any historian will tell you, the closer the time frame during which a source of evidence was written to the events that it describes, the more accurate it is. The New Testament in the Bible was written any time ranging from 60 C.E./A.D., to 300 C.E./A.D. As such, these events were not written as they happened. This would make them at least secondary evidence, but, with all the editing that has been going on over the past 1700 years, they drop another category of reliability into tertiary evidence. If you're going to claim that the Bible was 'divinely inspired', then ask yourself: "Why would the work of a perfect God need to be edited? Why would God allow His words to be altered?" There is bountiful proof that the Bible has been edited, just pick up any copy of the Bible, and, somewhere on the cover, it will give you the version of the Bible that you are holding.

'3) No matter how much you threaten us and our organization, this fundamental truth will NOT change.'

I don't recall ever threatening you, the only possible thing you might have interpreted as a threat would be where I said that people who believe that God will cure their illness, and then die, deserved to die. This was NOT a threat. It was simply a personal opinion, which I suppose I should have extended to include ANY Higher Power. If you're going to believe that something metaphysical can cure your physical ailments is an absurdity, and anyone who claims to have been healed by any metaphysical power is grossly mis-informed about the way the immune system works. Why would I threaten you? Where is the profit in that? Only through questioning, and debate, can we, as human beings, truly grow.
Now, 'the truth'. The truth is a very difficult thing. What is true for one man, may not be true for another. For example, the Ancient Greeks said that the sky was bronze coloured. They knew this to be true. It was a FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH amoungst them. Nowadays, we call the sky blue. WE know this to be true. It is also a FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH. Which one is true? To us, the Ancient Greeks were wrong, and what they believed was false. To them, what we believe is false. This is because of a difference of opinion about which colour was which. (In reality, the Ancient Greeks had no word for blue. They attributed brass to the colour of the sky because they had no need for the word blue, as colour was not important when they described things). This is an instance of where the fundamental truth DID change, and that is a FACT. Is it not possible that, as the Bible was initially written 1700 years ago (the Old testament is even older than that, and is even less reliable, as it is simply oral stories written down.), things we understand now, such as viruses, earthquakes, floods, or any natural phenomena for which we now have an explanation (due to scientific study), would have been very miraculous in the past, and therefore stories would have been made up to explain them? An example of this is the old testament story of Moses and the Jews crossing the red sea. Firstly, there is no archaeological or historical evidence to suggest that the entire Jewish nation was ever enslaved in Egypt. There are no records of such a thing (and believe me, records would have survived somewhere), and it is possible that it was simply a small family who fled slavery. The parting of the red sea can quite easily be explained. Mistranslation of the text would have meant that it was actually the Reed Sea that is mentioned in the book of Exodus. This is supported by evidence from the Bible itself, where the Jews manage to make it across the entire red sea in ten hours, a trek which would be impossible, as it is 120 miles in width at it's narrowest. This trek would not be possible for people on foot in just ten hours. The reed sea, however is just 25 kilometers wide at it's narrowest, and it is possible for a small family of people to have made it across in ten hours. Even today, it can be observed that, at it's shallowest part, a strong breeze can expose the terrain underneath. No doubt miraculous in Biblical times, but it happens often. This is not something I have just made up. The American Scientific Affiliation gave all the information about this. And they are a Christian group.
What I'm really trying to get at is, that biblical stories have been embellished to make them seem more wondrous than they really are. They may be based on truth, but they are not truth.
I just want to share with you a few quotes on truth from a few historical figures that I have great respect for:

"Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it."
(Andre Gide)

"As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities."
(Voltaire)

"When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow."
(Anias Nin)

"Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. [paraphrased]"
(Buddha)

And if you dispute the veracity of these ideas because some of the people are not Christian, then take a look at this one:

"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four; calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
(Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America)

In the words of Abraham Lincoln, just because you say that God made everything, that Jesus is the only way to salvation, or that Star Wars is the work of Satan, doesn't make it true. Facts and scientific evidence are required before something can be proven to be true beyond reasonable doubt, and even then it requires at least a 95% probability that it is accurate. And that IS the TRUTH.
If you really want an idea of just how relative the truth is, I would suggest that you visit www.venganza.org. This website shows the TRUE cause of Global warming, which can be proven through correllating evidence.

Yours,

Xaos

(Praise be the FSM. He welcomes you with His Noodly Appendage).