I'm also enjoying this thread and I am one who is confused and torn on a lot of things about what different denominations teach. I think jcsperson made a good point and it should illustrate how many different ways there are of interpreting the Bible or other holy writings by how many denominations there are out there, all believing and interpreting things differently. I was raised Catholic but certainly have disagreements with some of the things Catholicism teaches.

I was so disenchanted with the church when it would not allow my husband and I to marry in the church unless we moved apart for at least 6 months. Well we hadn't gotten married before living together simply because we couldn't afford it. After we moved to MN, he was still going to college and I could only work part-time because of some health problems I was having at the time, and we certainly couldn't afford two separate places, in fact had to live with in-laws for awhile. We lived together about 5 years total by the time we got married. We had an apartment then and were getting by enough to save up for a fairly small ceremony, reception, and honeymoon. None of it was particularly elaborate but we saved up and paid for it without going into debt. The church would not let us be married in it unless we moved apart for 6 months first, after 5 years even if we could have afforded 2 separate apartments we wouldn't have moved apart, so we were forced to marry by Justice of the Peace, and that is really when I began falling away from the church and questioning a lot of things in my mind and heart.

Thousands of years ago, marriage was a lot simpler and easier, I think you could have a ceremony and gathering without having a lot of money, there weren't a lot of legal documents and licenses to get married in the times when the Bible was written, so to me in a way I wonder if "marriage" in the Bible is referring more to the choosing of a mate, than the actual ceremony. I mean, back when people might live hundreds of miles out of sight of another person, do you really think there were clergymen within range of every person, or maybe that they had a joining where it was declared by the families and that made it a marriage? I'm probably not explaining this well.. I hope some can understand what I'm getting at here though.

A lot of church teachings are contradictory of each other too. The Bible teaches "judge not lest ye be judged" and yet church officials "judge" and condemn on behalf of God. I guess that is one of the biggest things I question and wonder about. There are so many interpretations and translations of the Bible. I've also wondered as Martin (jcsperson) stated if some things were metaphorical, or even written as a parable.

Finally, how many people in the world seem to murder and destroy in the name of religion? Many many faiths have interpretations of what is right and wrong change through the years. At one time Christians went on crusades and slaughtered in the name of God. Of course most of us look back and see that as wrong now, but to them it was right and holy then. What if some of the things we assume are right and holy now will be things people look back on a thousand years from now the same way we look back on the Crusades and other religious slaughters today? How can we ever be so certain on one set way?