:? I have many friends all with differing beliefs from atheists to fundamentalist christians. Most of the atheists I can get along with just fine, but the fundamentalist christians are only nice to me as until they find out that our beliefs differ slightly. I am careful not to just blurt out my beliefs that differ & try to concentrate on our commonalities, but eventually, I am asked direct questions which I answer honestly but with respect for the questioners beliefs. In other words, I try not to offend. Well, I am often bashed, called names & even cursed by these same God loving individuals! Some have even left nasty comments on my AOL profile. I just delete them. When I make a new friend, everything seems to be fine until I am directly asked about my beliefs. As soon as these fundamentalists find out that I do not believe in hell or that Christ had to die such a horrible death for our salvation, or that God never required any blood sacrifices & that such beliefs originated from paganism, I am shunned & talked about behind my back as if I were the devil incarnate! This does hurt my feelings because many of these people I do concider friends & then they treat me badly. I never return the name calling etc as I hope my 'friends' will learn or figure it out by my good example, but that rarely happens. And when I plainly state that I read the Urantia book things get even worse!

What can I do to help my christian friends to understand that I am not very different from them & stop them from being so cruel to me? What can I say when these folks say the Urantia book is demonic etc? I'm asking this because I'm sure many of you, other Urantia book readers, have had similar problems. Any advice? (I live in Maine where there seems there are few Urantia book readers & I have yet to find any Urantia book study groups here)