Thank you. You have touched on many issues that irritate me the most about Christianity. The almost insane emphasis on the physical punishment of children, the insistence that non-evangelicals are going to hell, the belief in a literal, six-day creation when clearly they don't take all of the Bible literally--they don't turn the other cheek when assaulted, give to those who ask of them, or refrain from war--most of them--which is certain to kill the innocent.

About the substitutionary atonement--if you read Luke's passage about the first communion at the last supper, you will notice that he omits the part about the body and blood of Jesus given "for the remission of sins." Luke simply writes that the blood and body "are given for you." Thus, one early and authoritative version of Jesus' ministry omits this troublesome idea altogether.