Thanks for the well thought out reply. You bring up many good points. My somewhat rambling post was mainly about things that have been tumbling around in my head. A lot of my points were opinions I have that have developed over time. My opinions were formed by several means mixed together: what I believe the Bible is and what I believe it says, life experiences, opinions of others, what I have seen read or heard, and even what I feel. As such, I can't really refute the points you bring up or back up my opinions with a lot of factual data. Hopefully, I've taken factual data into consideration in the forming of my opinions, but facts can be rather subjective at times.

Anyway, I wasn't trying to convince anyone of anything. I was just posting some of my beliefs and opinions to get some feedback on other points of view that I could consider. Thanks for the feedback.

Dakota