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Sorry to bore you with all of that, but I thought I should answer you more thoughtfully than flippantly.

Not at all. Thank you.

The best way to know the Truth is through knowing God personally. The Only Way for us sinful people to be reconciled to Holy God is via accepting His only begotten Son (Jesus of Nazareth) as Lord of all His creation.

When you genuinely repent of all your own false ideas (the sinful deeds) and, as a trusting child, come to the Cross in total dependance on what God has begun and finished in your behalf, God will reveal Himself to you in an undeniably unique way (new birth as a new person in Christ) that cannot be manufactured by men or any religion: through faith in the person of His Son Lord Jesus Christ as our only Savior from all our sins and thus from the second death.

One outward sign that the new birth has indeed occurred is that you will come literally to HATE all the lying crap you have eaten up over the years. You will have a new love and strong desire for the Truth in every matter and will be given a Comforting Instructor who will lead you always to become Christ-like, step by faithful step.

You will find that the smartest things, the most intriquing things man has ever written and done, pale to dim outlines against the vivid, spontaneous, living Word of God in the foreground...Jesus is really alive right now and God has sent the Holy Spirit to comfort and instruct us in all His righteousness.

Without maintaining believing, saving faith in Jesus, especially in times of great hurt and pain, the words of the Holy Bible will in large part remain veiled to you (Jesus spoke in parables), just as the written Word is still veiled to the devil's comprehension even though he has memorized and can quote much of the Scriptures...but wrongly...and only to deceive and destroy God's favorite creation that God loves the most; namely...us...you...me...mankind.

The books and writings that formerly titillated your imagination, will be consigned either to Goodwill or the trash can or perhaps, as in my case, to a campfire. Wow; that fire really stank!

Without maintaining believing, saving faith in Jesus, especially in times of great hurt and pain, the words of the Holy Bible will in large part remain veiled to you (Jesus spoke in parables), just as the written Word is still veiled to the devil's comprehension even though he has memorized and can quote much of the Scriptures...but wrongly...and only to deceive and destroy God's favorite creation that God loves the most; namely...us...you...me...mankind.

This truth is a constant source of fascination and concern for me and perhaps the main reason I've avoided organized religion.

My sense, based upon experience, is that the more "high info" types somehow get damaged by their accumulated knowledge. Thus damaged, they take a great deal of pride in "their" interpretations and will do battle any time, anywhere to fight that they're right.

To me, this appears to be one of Satan's traps. Divide and conquer has always worked very well and the collaterally damaged by these warriors tend to avoid whatever it is they're fighting about, making the strategy extremely effective overall.

I know I've read inconvenient Scripture that tells us not to do this, but hey, "It's a WAR!", right?

Oh well...what do I know? I can usually find value in a Joel Osteen sermon, a fact which no doubt labels me and my spirit as being hopelessly lost.

I'm okay with that, too.