[xzins]

The underlying truth is the rules for living together with your neighbors. Jesus spoke in parables, which were both true and fictional.

So, they lied about a guy named Moses meeting God, they lied about God giving him tablets, they lied about God writing commandments on those tablets, and they lied about this happening on Mt Sinai...

BUT.....

The moral code introduced by all this fiction is true?

To be honest with you, there is nothing provably true within that code.

It really doesn't make any difference if I steal your wife, your money, and your donkey.

If I get away with it, tough luck for you.

If I don't, tough luck for me. The world goes on.

Those rules don't mean sh_t unless God gave them.

[Junior]

You forget we are social critters. We live in groups because we need cooperation among individuals to survive. If you steal my wife or my donkey, you can't be trusted by the rest of the group so you'll be stuck on your own -- at which point your life expectancy goes way down.

As I've pointed out on this very thread, rules for living together are so important people throughout the world came up with comparable systems without Divine intervention. Attributing such rules to the Almighty might make them more palatable to those unable or unwilling to think rationally (which, unfortunately, is the great majority of the species), but that does not necessarily make them Divinely inspired.

[Thatcherite]

See 284