I wrote the following as a reply to a reader who appears to be firm believer in Christianity in the replies section of Device Heretic's 'And the Temptress Came Unto Her', which is a story I fully recommend you read if you haven't done so yet.

Within a matter of minutes, Heretic brought the reply down because he was afraid that his reply bar would become the site of a flame war. Which is a fair enough worry, since I have no doubt that some people will either miss the point I am trying to make or assume that I am attacking them personally for believing what they believe. This is not the case, but some people simply cannot be reasoned with.

Because of the research and effort I put into my reply, I didn't want it to go to waste. So I am posting it here to stand on it's own and fully accept responsibility for whatever happens because of doing so.

Now before you read it, I will reenforce the message I have put in it just to make sure it gets across. I am not attacking the Christian faith, I am merely giving those who believe in Jesus Christ something to consider and reflect on. After all, the Bible is full of stories of God testing the faith of his follows in order to see how devote they are (Both new and old testaments). If you can't allow yourself to test your faith, then how can one prove one's devotion to God?

If you can reasonably question your beliefs and still feel that I've gotten something wrong enough that you need to tell me as such, go ahead. Just don't mindlessly rage again me for it.

The message itself is posted in bold.  

Personally, I'm not going to tell you what I think about the whole 'Jesus is our lord and savoir, the Devil is the source of all evil' thing simply because I don't want to start a flame war. However, I will pose an idea to you and other believers so that you can at least reflect on your beliefs.

Just an idea that I thought of a little while ago, let's say that the Devil exists and did tempt Jesus like the Bible said he did. What if the Devil intentionally threw the fight against Christ? Made a decent showing so that the son of god didn't catch on to the fact the battle was fixed so he would win and took a dive?

The reward for doing so? At that point in history, Christianity was little more then a cult. If the Devil corrupted Jesus, sure it would have tainted the rest of his followers but like all such cults it would have burned itself out after Jesus's death, maybe hang on for a few decades, maybe even a century or two but sooner or later faded away as most one man 'saviors of mankind' do.. By throwing it, those who followed Christ started the think 'Hey, the Devil isn't so scary. If you're pure enough, he can't even touch you' which led to the thinking ' Hey, there are people who don't follow the ways of Christ. They are unpure. It is our duty as loyal Christians to purify our fellow men of their heretical beliefs if they want us to or not'.

Two thousand years later, Christians assault and murder doctors for performing medical research and procedures that they disagree with, burn books because the content suggests that they weren't created by a god and beat, torture and murder people simply because god created them to enjoy the company of those of the same gender. None of these were issues in the days that Jesus walked the earth. Hell, in the days Jesus was alive you could be openly Homosexual and no one could care less about it. It didn't become illegal until sometime in 300 ad, when the Christians took over Rome and declared it a crime that was punishable by being burned alive.

...Just an stray thought through. I'm not Christian nor was I raised as one so I might be missing some things, but it's worth thinking about.