I was extrapolating . . . if you say that God will give you what you want if you have a good relationship with him, you do not mean that goes for me and me alone.

It also follows that the Christians here who are suffering terribly with their illnesses are not getting what they want/need despite their faith. I'm sorry I got a little bitter in responding to that, but I don't see a lot of logic here. You're telling me that Jesus took time out to help you get a bargain deal, but he is not helping someone like Jinx who is at the end of his tether? Strange indeed are the ways of the Lord eh? You're also telling me that "successful" people like Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch must be on God's good books, or haven't done anything to anger him etc, hence their continued good fortune? Does that mean the people who died in Hurricane Katrina, for example, were being punished? That those who are impoverished, starving, etc, deserve to be, through divine will? What sort of nursery-school logic is this?

Bottom line, it sounds like you are saying that those of us who do not follow the Christian faith have brought our problems on our own heads. Also we are generally an untrustworthy bunch. Or maybe that's just the business people you work with? I've known very loving, morally upright non-Christian people. I've also known so-called Christians who were, let's say, rather less so.

I really do believe in people getting along with each other, but I think religion more often than not stands as a barrier to this.