On Paul... (parts of a ongoing dialogue with another poster on newsgroup - talk.religion.newage) Paul was clearly a man and therefore of "mankind." His errors echo through the centuries, yet his personal good intentions are also clear. This is the essence of what human intellect does in the aftermoment of revelation -- it seeks to implement it in the world to the best of its inherently limited ability and most often errs, sometimes tragically. I think we can agree concerning the absence of the authentic, direct experience of what theists call "God" among those who lead religions. As it was among the Sadducees, so it is in modern, institutional Christianity, Paul's legacy, as well as in modern Judaism and Islam. The Apostles may have followed the one the Greeks called "Jesus," but they were by all appearances not themselves rightful embodiments of that which theists call "God." I cannot in the case of the apostles subscribe to your view that they were truly at-one with what their master taught. ....... The direct experience of the truly sacred that theists call "God", does not require a formal, sequential intellectual structure.