Another reason for me to not like the current Pope

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

If the Temple still stood... would you still be Jewish? I mean, how would you feel about adhering to your religion under those circumstances.

This is like asking a Protestant - if Martin Luther had never tacked his letter on the door, would you still be a Christian? Impossible to judge, impossible to say. The world itself would be a different place, in both cases.

From my current perspective, I'm no fan of ritual sacrifice, but again, that's in part because ritual sacrifice hasn't been a part of Judaism since the year 70, CE.

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

Also... how does the lack of the temple nullify sacrifices? Didn't the early prophets built altars wherever?

Nope, sacrifice was only in the Temple.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Which one is deemed correct? Are they only deemed correct on the points where they agree? Do Catholics believe there were several simultaneous true yet different events on the points where the Gospels conflict?

In this vein, I think Christianity is smart. Whereas the Torah is, according to Judaism, the word of God dictated to Moses, the Gospels have never claimed as such, and instead, are the very personal points of view of different human beings. The inherent concept is that there is no way that one person could have gotten these events down correctly, and that every person has a different perspective. They're all right and they're all wrong, and the truth is supposed to come through various perspectives placed next to each other. This concept is a pretty heady life lesson in itself.