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Hi Carla,

It isn't so much about being "like" Jesus, but having God given "advice" how to live. What the NT gives us is ideal values that will help us and society to grow. This is basically to be decent citizens (i.e. not steal, lie, murder), and regarding sexual morality to be responsible (i.e. to be sexually intimate only in committed relationship (marriage being the ultimate committment), and to consider children as good things i.e. not abort them (which often happens as a result of sex out of committed relationships).

It's about always considering the consequences of our actions, not just to people, but to the world around us and animals. So many people just think about what they want, not how what they want can negatively impact others or the natural world around us, as though they are an island existing only unto themselves.

Why would you think that "ideal values" come only from J.C. and the New Testament (the apparent word of God)?

Are you suggesting that morality comes only from Christianity? Well, the Jews say that it comes only from THEM. I am not making this up. Corner a Jewish scholar and he will tell you that the Jews' ownership of morality is the reason for anti-semitism throughout the centuries. That is, the rest of us (non-jews) are jealous of the jews' corner on morality and that is why we "hate"them. I have read this on religious jewish sites.

I think that every race/culture is unique, and that it is perfectly capable of devising its own system of morality. I find it difficult to believe that all pre-Christian or pre-Jewish societies were rampantly immoral in all respects. Don't you?

Animals feel pain & suffering just as we do, and they value their lives as much as we value ours.