This is Spinal Tap!

Now you're using scarlet text. Smartypants.

And your mind truly is a repository of many many facts, musical, religious, pythonesque or otherwise. I listened and that phrase really is there at the end of Eclipse, even on the CD!

Now then ... "On the problem of C.S. Lewis" (and the title of your previous append did not go unnoticed) -- I want BAGWELLS opinion here, not some regurgitated material ok? :-) You are much smarter than Mr Lewis. My claim for this is that I have read his material and anyone who uses the phrases "Clearly ...", "Surely ...", "It is well known that ..." so often is highly suspect. One of the things I've discovered in 41 years of living is that Life, The Universe and Everything are not so clear. (These people often use the word silly also, at which point I usually close the book!)

On the other hand your material is concise and to the point, in an engaging and chatty manner. Ergo, you have seen further :-) You know very well that Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are silly but you're far too smart to say so.

And Mr. Lewis, how do you clearly know when The Bible is speaking metaphorically and when it is not? Is Jesus a metaphorical saviour? Nom he is a literal one - because you decided that Mr. Lewis? What magic gifts we have to know when to interpret and when to take literally nous pas ?

Having said that about him, Lewis has brought Christianity to a great many folks so I am not completely dismissing him. I think that he and I are diametrically opposed as I believe that FAITH is not something that lends itself to reason. The one thing that omnipotence is not is reasonable. This is why I believe it's much more important to get the message of The Bible than the minute details. I think that it's completely pointless to focus on and mark up each individual word (oh and I have seen Christians do this - in whatever translation they might be reading at the time) in the hope to glean some hidden secret. When I see that I get a feeling of despair inside, perhaps generated by observing such a waste of effort?

Of course I may be entirely wrong and each to his or her own. Whatever floats your boat grandma. Enough Lewis bashing and having said all of the above I will go on to quote specific passages in The Bible as if nothing has changed :-)

On the non-eternal nature of our souls .. just when were they created? Physical evidence suggests that there has only ever been one moment of creation. Usually referred to as The Big Bang. The basic building blocks of our bodies were created in The Big Bang and were refined inside of stars in fusion and nucleosynthetic processes over the last 14 billion (US) or so years. Once "created" will our souls last forever?

And your question:

"why would God feel it necessary to punish those who are not saved? Why not simply extinguish them from existence"

Yes this was exactly my question to you. There is a very big downside (the perilous position) in the Christian faith to not being a Christian. I suspect that this part of the doctrine (Hell) was invented to keep folks on the right path. The right path of course being defined by the Christian Church of man (and all roads lead to Rome). Hell is an encouragement to keep banging the 10% tithe into the Church coffers. I don't think that Christians really sign up for the non-transactional nature of Christianity you mentioned before. Christians have faith that they will be saved from Hell and enjoy Heaven through their actions and faith on Earth.

Current song: Aztec Camera: "How men are"