Attention Christians - please give me your thoughts

We were discussing the 'other' books written but that were not included in the Bible. HUNDREDS of them.. all authenticated by being from the same time period.  Why are these ignored by Christians?  I would have thought that Christians would have been flocking to read them and include them in the 'big book'.  Is it because some contradict what the current book says? Is it because Mary's book insinuated that there was more between her and Jesus?

When I was a Christian and I found out about this I remembered being very excited and wanting to read them!  But no one else did.. it was hush hush and disregarded... part of the reason for my spiraling decent (or incline!) to Athiesm.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Edit: We started discussing this in the "Muslims voting for Obama calling him their savior? " thread

Bobs, thank you for explaining what you mean. I can understand how you came to your conclusion. I appreciate you taking your time to write out a very thoughtful post and giving sources.

For the record, I was not trying to negate that many of the founding fathers were christian or that what you call judeo-christian values and priciples were not used to form our nation. What I was trying to get across is that judeo-christian principles were not the only things used to found this nation. This point is quite often overlooked or dismissed by the christian right.

I also think is important for people to realize that judeo-christian principles were formed from earlier religions and to only give credit to the judeo-christian name is disingenuous.

Original Post by moonikins:

Bobs, thank you for explaining what you mean. I can understand how you came to your conclusion. I appreciate you taking your time to write out a very thoughtful post and giving sources.

For the record, I was not trying to negate that many of the founding fathers were christian or that what you call judeo-christian values and priciples were not used to form our nation. What I was trying to get across is that judeo-christian principles were not the only things used to found this nation. This point is quite often overlooked or dismissed by the christian right.

I also think is important for people to realize that judeo-christian principles were formed from earlier religions and to only give credit to the judeo-christian name is disingenuous.

 Thanks for taking the time to read it.  I'm glad that I was able to more fully explain my point of view and you have a clearer understanding.

Regardless of our disagreements and difference of opinions, it certainly is nice to live in a country where we can debate our ideas with no worries of recriminations!

Just wanted to tell Bob that I read every word of his long post.  :)   I enjoyed it.

i read it too!  and i get it now.

but like mooni, i don't think that the principles bob refers to are judeo-christian principles so much as principles for society in general, predating the OT by thousands of years.  i mean - the ten commandments weren't exactly earth-shattering revelations, you know?  it's all pretty basic ;)