ok here in laymans terms is what most christians believe. God himself created man and woman and placed them in a garden, in "his own image", but got righteously angry at them when they ate, against his wish, and after being tempted by a talking serpent that god himself had somehow allowed to slither about in the garden, a tasty, beautiful fruit, though he himself had placed it there but neglected to instill in his creations the knowledge of good and evil so that they would know it was wrong to eat it. Being omniscient, of course, he knew all this before he started, but was apparently unable to do anything about it because he had planned it this way from the beginning, and apparently god cannot change anything he already knows, in spite of the fact that he's omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent. Later, God himself impregnated a virgin so that he himself could be born a human, a ManGod. This was necessary, apparently, because only his own ManGod blood could appease himself and deliver humans, who he created, and who he knew would muck things up by eating the fruit, from his own righteous anger. Of course, he waited several thousand years to implement this divine plan, in the meantime taking the righteous action of drowning every creature on the planet except a few he could stuff on a boat. Not to mention handing down a Law that served to further condemn every one of us, and in which Law he himself had them frequently sacrifice animals to appease himself, though he knew the blood of animals didn't really appease himself. Much later, god, in a garden, prayed to himself to "take this cup" away from himself, though he himself knew that he himself had planned the coming events from the beginning and knew that not even he himself could save himself, even though he was god and omnipotent, omniscient, etc. Accepting this, he said, in effect, "Not my will, but my will." God then sacrificed himself to himself to save us from himself. (or had himself sacrificed; not much of a distinction between the two, really) Before dying, he himself asked he himself why he had forsaken himself. He himself, being dead, then raised himself from the dead less than 40 hours later, though he himself had said he'd be dead for three days and three nights, which he could do because he was still alive, and later he himself pulled himself up into heaven where he himself apparently already was, and where he himself is described as now sitting at the right hand of himself. He himself then sent himself (or a ghost of himself, if you please) back to earth to be a comfort to us, though he himself is still sitting at the right hand of himself. And, glory hallelujah, he himself promised that he himself will return someday, though he himself is already here, and will still be there, to snatch up those who believe the god blood sacrifice story he himself told us, and kill the rest of us who don't believe the god blood sacrifice story, no matter how nice we were otherwise. But, since killing us isn't enough to appease his righteousness, he himself will then judge us, though according to ManGod he himself will also not judge us, and being a god of love will cast most of us into hell for an eternity of suffering. He has to, of course, because he is a righteous, just god, and can't figure out a way to save anyone who hasn't been redeemed by god-blood, even though he is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, and loves us all.
Ok - show me where the bible says the how old the earth is. How would I be agnostic about Islam. I know Islam exists. I know Muslims - don't you? I am beginning to sense many of the atheists here at ET do not understand logic.
Once again how old do you think the earth is? I should of asked do you believe in Allah ? Are you agnostic about the Islam god Allah? Are you agnostic about the gods of other religions?
Thank you for the responses. I am... - an interesting idea, but a bit ethereal. Metaphors are fine, but the reason for crucifixion was not addressed. jem - again, a bit further than the standard pat answer, but again - why crucifixion? Free Thinker - funny, but while the humor is good, it obscures the reason for the crucifixion and doesn't answer "why". Glad to see that no one took the question off on a tangent as having anything to do with the church, since that is an entity unto itself with plenty of its own problems.
Reason is to change - motivate us to change - our world-view, those of us who understand it. We need to change our world-view in order to proceed to our "resurrection", better termed as an awakening.
Oh, why crucifixion rather than some other mode of execution/injustice? Jesus, along with his Teacher, chose an extreme example of apparent injustice to teach us how to deal with lesser injustices. The method of apparent injustice does not matter that much except that it was chosen for it's extreme example. If anything, crucifixion is more poetic in it's eloquence. The death scenario was mainly a prelude to the death-defying demonstration, which is the most important aspect of the story/parable/metaphor. Christ!