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It is certainly reasonable for me to find their views and actions invalid, and it is reasonable for you to asses my view and theirs as equally invalid, if that is what you believe.

For me (and, presumably, Jim) it is not a matter of belief, but logic (as Mr. Spock would say ): there are so many mutually exclusive "true Gods", and each has a nice bunch of followers absolutely convinced in "The Truth" of their respective religion, that the only rational conclusion is that none of them is real. The fact that I don't see any sign of divine presence in the world, while I do see plenty of phycological and sociological mechanisms giving rise to belief in supernatural, also helps, of course.

But all this is beating a dead horse: we have been through this more that once.

What I would like to see is a debate between several knowledgeable Bible scholars using different parts of [what seems to me to be] internaly inconsistent collection of holly texts to defend their respective shades of Christianity. You know, like a court drama: using the same evidence to reach different conclusions; for me that kind of stuff was always interesting to watch. I am sure there are untold forests of dead trees on this subject, but live sparring is more fun. We wouldn't have an eloquent devout Catholic or Orthodox around here?

More seriously, can anyone recommend an accessible (to an infidel) book on genesis and differences between different strains of Christians?

Edit: Hm, this 'strain' sounds like strain of E. coli, for example. No offense indended.