Dear pba
This may get lost in all the other responses, and I will be honest, I didn't read all the other responses, but I appreciate your courage and honesty in asking a lot of good questions. I'm just going to attempt to answer a couple of them. Christianity is more than a religion. The people who you refer to as being angry and judgmental and arrogant are religious people. True Christianity involves realizing that there is a holy God who made us and loves us, but since He is holy and I am not, there is no way I can come to him on my own. Jesus Christ came to earth and became a man, lived a perfect life, and then died on a cross to pay the price God required for the wrongdoing (sin) of mankind. Then Christ rose from the dead on the Sunday after his crucifixion, proving once and for all that he really was the Son of God. Therefore, we should follow Him and do what He tells us to do. How do we follow Him? We obey what he says, and what he says is in the Bible. The distillation of the entire Bible into a simple idea is that man has screwed up the world with his sin, God took care of this mess with the death and resurrection of Jesus, and now all He asks in return is for us to put our trust in Jesus and make him the Lord (the Boss) of our lives. When you do this, you are a Christian. Then we learn about what Jesus wants us to do by reading the Bible. If you are truly seeking for the truth, then look at Jesus in the New Testament and you will see it. I will pray for you as you look for answers. There is always an open door at Faith Church on Hwy 72 in Florence and we would be glad to help you in your search.