The Christian religion is based on very shaky foundations. We have no certainty regarding the sayings of Jesus due firstly to the great gap in time between the crucifixion and the appearance of the first sacred text. Secondly, we do not know positively what has been added or taken away from the Gospels. We do know that they are not as they were originally written. Others have interfered with them. The Christian religion is built on unsubstantiated happenings two thousand years ago. The authenticity of the Bible manuscripts is in doubt and therefore they are not fully trustworthy.

What the Christian zealots have today, is unfortunately not the teaching of Jesus but the doctrine of a divided and deeply troubled man, without personal unity, who called himself Paul, the apostle to the gentiles.

The beliefs of the Christian churches are those of Paul. He was an unusual man who claimed to have received all his doctrine directly from God by revelation, through dreams, visions and trances. What he thought he had received by revelation was in reality nothing more than the echo of his own thoughts and emotions, as an echo in a cave reinforces verbal expressions.

Paul is said to have healed a man who had never walked before and "the man sprang up and began to walk." Acts 14:10. Do you think this is possible for someone with unused, undeveloped muscles to do'? To believe in such miracles is to stretch credulity far beyond logical limits. Paul speaks to God in an unknown garbled language known as glossolalia. He has also given us an insight into the conflict within his own mind when he admits to war within himself. Rom. ch.7. Do you really think you can trust your life to Paul's fractured doctrine?

Belief in miracles; good or bad spiritual beings of all kinds occupying our world; the devil; the resurrection of the dead;

and the second coming of Jesus are all concepts born of fear of the unknown. None of these things can be scientifically proved.

Do you and I need a religion? No, we do not. Do we need to have good ethical standards of behaviour? Yes, we need to do this also. We already have all the tools or virtues we need to live a rewarding life in happy relationship with our fellow human beings. We each stand alone in this. This life is our one individual opportunity and responsibility to make the best we can of it. We will have no other chance.