As far as mean spiritted, unforgiving, don’t-give-an-inch Christians (in the context of their views on religion) I totally agree. My family was Lutheran in the old country (Germany) and when they came to the N. Amer. Continent 200 hundred years ago they scurried about and through the various protestant denominations like fleas to a dog kennal. And mean spirited? God yes! My being agnostic has them all scratching their heads. But you’re right — they won’t budge one inch if you offer an argument that counters their beliefs — and they will most likely call you bad names in the process.

Oh, and this is a small matter — please don’t refer to me as Mike. That was my wife’s old boyfriend’s name and it does wonders for my monumentally weak ego.

A blog is whatever the writer wants it to be, and most of them ARE largely diaries. By definition, a blog is open to the public.

That is the DEFINITION of a blog, Mark.

If comments come in and the blogger wishes to have them, the blog has that, too. This is standard procedure.

In fact, my blog has been compromised from its original purpose by my team’s concern with my speaking too freely here. It is supposed to be wide-open give-and-take, but some readers, not me, can’t take that.

Isn’t it odd how someone with a weak ego would publish ALL your comments.

In fact, the arguments here have gone a long way toward convincing me that my belief that the Rabbi Joshuas ben-Joseph was actually the world savior I had seen him as. He was an extension of the strictly Jewish version of Savior so many faiths looked for, as commenters have been insisting.

So my fragile grip on Christianity has slipped. This was something I could not have discussed in any other forums — the “Christians” will not tolerate disagreement — and a less forgiving group of people I never met.

So the blog is doing what I wanted it to do, which, as repeated by the BoardOp, is its purpose.

Actually it is written for the reader, because if it wasn’t it would simply be a diary entry, which again is written for the reader — some reader — years to come perhaps, but someone other than the writer, as a historical account of the thrunderclouds taking shape between the writer’s ears. Putting a blog (or diary, or internet radio show) on the internet in a open (more or less) forumn is also evidence that a blog (yours or anyone else’s) is written for the reader. If it wasn’t, it would be locked up forever more, or never written in the first place.

Perhaps the issue is not that this blog isn’t written for the reader, but a case of your ego not being able to handle someone someone saying they are bored to tears at a particular series of ramblings. I’m sorry to have been the bearer of bad news, but to me religous prattle is the verbal equivelent of nytol. To someone else it is and amphetamine. That’s just the way it is.

Oh, and, commone sense tells me that If your blog was not meant for the reader you would not have allowed me to express my opinions on said blog.